


Loyalty

by SandM1827



Category: Animal Kingdom (TV), Power (TV)
Genre: Angst, Crossover, F/M, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2020-10-06 23:50:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 174,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20515541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SandM1827/pseuds/SandM1827
Summary: "The people who expect loyalty the most will never be loyal to anyone but themselves."





	1. Chainsmoking

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd.  
Chapter title comes from [Chainsmoking by Jacob Banks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGt-VULv9FQ)  
Gif sets: [Loyalty](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/187384192871/animal-kingdom-power-crossover-loyalty-prev), [Truth](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/187431820831/animal-kingdom-power-crossover-truth), [Appetizer](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/187295958266/animal-kingdom-power-crossover-appetizer-if-you)
> 
> This takes place post-s4 of Animal Kingdom and as season 6 of Power airs, this first chapter is set during 6x01. If there are any questions, feel free to send me an ask on [tumblr](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/) or use the comment section here.

Adrian wasn't the type to runaway out of fear. He would walk away from a difficult or dangerous situation, but he would do it on his own terms, under his own volition. He had never allowed himself to be forced out or scared off in the past, and he wouldn't start now.

Going to Indonesia to start over had been Deran's idea, Adrian had gone along with it because he didn't want to go to prison, and the idea of building a life with Deran somewhere far away had been too appealing to pass up. However, there were downsides to Deran's big plan, Adrian becoming a fugitive being at the top of the list.

The thing was, Adrian could have done the one or two years in prison when his deal was on the table. He was willing to do the fifteen years after his deal was pulled over his refusal to gather intel on the Codys. It wouldn't have been easy by any means, prison wasn't something someone like Adrian was built for, but he would do it if it meant he could have his life back when it was all over.

Leaving the country meant giving up his home, his friends, his family. He would never be able to return without risking arrest. He would have avoided prison time, but he still wouldn't have his freedom. All he would have had was Deran, and that was enough for him.

What was the downside for Deran? He could've come home to visit his brother's whenever he felt like. Sure, the cops would have assumed he knew where Adrian was, but they wouldn't have been able to prove it. Deran could have come and gone as he pleased, never really losing anything, and that's what made his choice to stay hurt that much worse.

The real betrayal was in Deran's reasoning, he couldn't leave his family, and Adrian's couldn't stay because of them. It was only after Smurf found out the police had spoken to Adrian about her family that Deran announced, with absolute certainty, that if Adrian stayed, he would be killed. It didn't matter that he kept his mouth shut about the Codys or that the cops had pulled his deal as a result. The moment Detective Pearce questioned him, he became a threat that had to be eliminated.

Adrian understood Deran's need to stay, to be with his brother's in the wake of their mother's death. Maybe he wouldn't have been so angry if Deran had implied it was a temporary thing, that he would see Adrian off now, but join him later, once things in Oceanside were settled, Adrian could have accepted that, even if it were a lie. But sending him to a foreign country, where he didn't know anyone, where he would be all alone, estranged from his family and everything he ever knew, well, that was worse than prison or death from Adrian’s perspective.

Halfway down the pier, with his back to Deran, he decided he couldn’t go to Indonesia, or any other country with no extradition. He would not become a fugitive and give up his entire life all because the Codys wanted him dead for something he _**could**_ do. He wasn't going to give them or anyone else that kind of control over his life.

He still had to leave Oceanside, temporarily, if only to steady himself. He needed to gather his thoughts and decide how to proceed, figure out how to survive prison with the Cody threat hanging over his head. He needed to distance himself to reckon with the feelings of anger and heartache the man who claimed to love him left him with.

It was a stroke of luck that the airline tickets Deran had purchased under their aliases had a layover at JFK, but truth be told, without them, he still would have ended up back in New York. He had history there, was born there, lived there two whole years before his father moved him and his older sister to Oceanside. He had family there, a mother and brother he visited regularly as a child, and as often as he could manage as an adult. It was never a place he ran to or from, it was another place he called home, somewhere to go when he needed a break.

The old apartment building in Queens, where his mom had raised him and his brother Tommy, had been torn down when Adrian was still in high school, but he couldn't help but pass the spot it once stood whenever he came to town. This trip wasn't like all the others, he didn't stop to gaze nostalgically at the roach-infested shithole he nearly died in as a toddler. He went straight from the airport to the house his brother had bought for their mother to get them out of the old neighborhood.

Tommy had warned him once about using his key to get in when showing up unexpectedly in the middle of the night, said something along the lines of _"If you don't want to be on the receiving end of a fuckin' bat, ring the goddamn doorbell."_ Adrian had spent a good part of his youth mastering the art of sneaking in and out of the house undetected, so he wasn't too worried about getting whacked upside the head by a Louisville Slugger. Course, that didn't mean he didn't take the extra precaution of toeing off his shoes to keep the extra weight from creaking the floorboards when he walked.

The first left at the top of the stairs was supposed to be Adrian's room, but by the time they had moved in, Adrian had taken to crashing at Tommy’s apartment when he'd come to town. His room at his mom’s house had become a place to store all the shit he had collected in their old apartment. Boxes were left half-unpacked, scattered across the floor, garbage bags full of his teenage-self's wardrobe were tossed haphazardly in the closet. The only thing remotely put together in the space was the full sized bed he was sure he'd never slept in, made up neatly with sheets, pillows, and a knitted blanket.

He dumped his backpack on the floor next to a plastic tub labeled 'books' and sat on the edge of the bed. He wanted nothing more than to curl up, to succumb to exhaustion before his mind had a chance to replay the events of the last few days, hell, the last few months, but he knew sleep wouldn't come easily. He buried his face in the palm of his hands and just breathed, fighting the urge to cry or scream or both.

A rush of footsteps down the hall echoed in his ears, a telltale sign the woman of the house was on the prowl for the intruder in her home, probably wielding her trusty bat. Adrian wasn't concerned about the potential concussion, at this point he would welcome being knocked unconscious.

"You better tell me what the hell you--" The woman's shrill voice cut off as the 'whoosh' of the bat stopped just short of its intended target. "_Adrian_."

He lifted his head to gaze up at his mother, blinking slowly when he couldn't manage a real greeting.

"Shit, Adrian," His mother clutched her chest dramatically. "Shit. You scared me."

She laughed off the small scare and set the bat on the dresser, turning to him with her hands on her hips. She appeared ready to scold him for not calling first, but thought better of it when she caught the forlorn expression on his face.

"What happened?" She asked, fitting into the place beside him on the bed. "What's the matter, baby?"

"Nothing," He had ruined his life. He was going to prison. People he thought were his friends wanted him dead. Deran had finally chosen who he really wanted to be with. "I'm fine."

"You come home for the first time in months and the first thing you do is lie to your mother?" She admonished him, searching his face for an explanation for his obvious distress. "What happened to you?"

"I'm fine," He repeated the lie, voice cracking around the words. "I'm fine."

"You're not crying 'cause you’re fine," She caressed his cheek, wiping away tracks from the tears he didn't realize were falling. "Come on. You can tell me now or we can do this again in the morning."

"I'm fine."

* * *

A sick part of Deran wondered if it had been manipulation, his brothers combined assaults on his conscience, Craig begging him to stay, Pope giving him permission to go. Years of Smurf's bullshit had made him take everything with a grain of salt, including the motives behind his brothers’ actions. He couldn't really blame them for manipulating him, if that's what it was, after all the death that had followed them the last two years, their little family couldn't afford to lose anyone else.

Once he lost sight of the car Adrian had been driven away in, his family’s intentions stopped mattering. He limped over to Craig like a kicked puppy, tail tucked between his legs and all. Craig hadn't pushed him to speak, he handed him a beer and made up the couch so he wouldn't have to go home to an empty house and that was that until morning came.

Sleep hadn't found Deran that night. He hadn't even noticed the sun had begun shining through the thin curtains covering the windows until Craig sunk down on the sofa beside him, a fussy infant in his arms.

"I didn't want to ask last night," Craig broached the subject as tactfully as he could. "But what happened with Adrian?"

"He left. I stayed," Deran shrugged, sipping from the last of the beer he'd found in the back of the fridge. "Told him I couldn't leave you guys."

"How'd he take it?"

"I..." Deran hesitated, thinking back to the last thing Adrian said to him, _‘You’re the worst thing that ever happened to me_.’ "Does it matter?"

"Uh, yeah, it does," Craig tutted, shaking his head at Deran's obliviousness. "He knows a lot of shit about us. What's to stop him from going to the cops with it?"

“He kept his mouth shut about us when the cops were threatening him with over a decade in prison," Deran wasn't under the illusion that would buy Adrian any favor from his brothers, but it meant something to him. "He's got no reason to rat on us."

"I guess that would depend on how you left things," Craig determined, adjusting the blanket his son was wrapped in. "Was he cool with you staying behind or was he pissed?"

"What the fuck do you think, Craig?" Deran was sure Adrian would understand eventually, but he doubted that would be anytime soon. "I told him we would leave together, then I sent him off by himself."

"So he's pissed. _**Really**_ pissed," Craig nodded, stretching his legs out under the coffee table. "The kind of pissed that can make someone do something they wouldn't otherwise."

"I have pulled a lot of shit on him over the years, Craig. Unforgiveable shit. Shit you don't know about," The bathroom beating and having that guy tossed off a boat came to mind. "He could have turned me in at anytime, he never did."

"Well, he had less to lose then. His freedom is on the line now," Craig pointed out. "He goes to Pearce, he gets payback, puts you in jail, puts _**us**_ in jail, and keeps his own ass out of it. Two birds, one stone and all that."

"He won't do that," Adrian didn’t have it in him to be vindictive, Deran knew that from experience. "He's not talking to anyone. He's gone, Craig. He left the country. He's probably over the goddamn Atlantic right now."

"You're sure about that?" Craig quirked a brow. "You watched him get on the plane?"

"Yeah, I..." He watched him get in the car, he hadn't followed him all the way to the airport. "He's gone."

“Yeah?” Craig pursed his lips. “For all our sakes, you better I hope so.”

* * *

Tommy had a busy night, all right? Killing a fed while trying to kill his best friend was hard work. And he really didn't appreciate being chastised by Tasha about it, 'cause let's face the facts, he did them all a fucking favor. The deader Angela was, the better off they all were. Still, he could see how some might not feel the same way he did about the situation.

Ghost certainly had a problem with his sidepiece ending up with a bullet in her chest. Lying in wait to attack Tommy in his own apartment was a bitch move though, but one Tommy had been expecting. When all was said and done, he thought he had held his own pretty well. In fact, Tommy just might have settled that score with Ghost once and for all if Tariq hadn’t shown up when he did.

Tommy wanted nothing more than to give his nephew his full attention, to do whatever it was the kid had come over there to ask him to do, but his Serbian connect had other plans for him.

**NEW MESSAGE (2)**

**JASON:** _We need to meet. NOW._

**JASON:** _Adrian comes too._

The funny thing was, Tommy had never mentioned his little brother to Jason or anyone else he worked with. Sure, people knew about Adrian, a few trusted members of his crew knew him personally, but as a rule, Tommy never introduced him to any of the higher-ups, not Lobos, not Milan, and certainly not Jason. There was absolutely no reason Tommy could think of for Jason to be requesting a face-to-face with his brother.

Adrian's cellphone went straight to voicemail when Tommy called to ask him what the fuck was going on, but their mother had answered hers on the second ring. The woman confirmed his younger brother had shown up unannounced in the twilight hours of the night. The uncharacteristic notes of worry in her voice had put Tommy on edge, but didn't stop him from ordering her to pull Adrian's ass out of bed and have him ready to go by the time Tommy got there.

The last time Tommy had seen his little brother, the kid had been on a layover on his way back to Oceanside from the surf tour. They hadn't had time for much more than a cup of coffee at the airport, but it was nice to catch up for however long. Although, if memory served, Tommy had been the one doing most of the talking while his little brother struggled to stay awake, mumbling about jetlag under his breath.

Weeks later, exhaustion still seeped through the kid's every movement, from the bowed slump of his shoulders and heavy footfalls as he crossed the lawn to the way he practically collapsed into the passenger seat of the car. The lighting inside the vehicle did nothing for the dark-bruise like blemishes encircling his anguish-filled eyes, and neither did the ring of smoke wafting off the cigarette dangling from his lips.

"Thought you quit," Tommy mentioned, snagging the smoke right out of his brother's mouth and tossing it out the window. "A couple years ago."

"I did," Adrian murmured, wasting no time taking another cancer stick from the half-empty pack hidden in his pocket. "I will again if I find a good enough reason."

"Put your seatbelt on, A," Tommy instructed his brother as he maneuvered the Mustang down the road. "Tell me what's going on. It's not like you to make an impromptu visit."

"Deran and I split," Adrian shrugged, lighting the cigarette before securing his seatbelt. "Needed some distance."

"Oh yeah? Thought shit was going good there," Not that Tommy was surprised, shit between his brother and that Cody kid had never stayed chill for long. "What happened?"

"Bullshit," Adrian muttered scornfully. "On both sides of the field."

"You didn't tell that idiot you loved him, did you?" Tommy asked, remembering what their lovely mother had told him about those words after he'd uttered them to Holly. "Ma says that kind of shit scares weak people away."

"He said it first," Adrian argued, scowling like a petulant child. "I doubt he'll even remember me saying it, not after the parting shot I left him with right after."

"That bad, huh? Sorry, kid."

"Was bound to happen sooner or later," Adrian sighed, tipping his head back against the seat. "Never thought it'd happen like this, though."

"Do I need to kick someone’s ass?" 'Cause he totally would, he'd been itching to get his hands on that Cody dipshit for well over two years. "Jess and I sort of have an agreement about Deran, she gets first crack at him, but I can be persuaded--"

"Nothing you or Jess does to him is going to change anything," Adrian remarked, taking a drag from the cigarette. "If he ever really cared about me, then the last thing I said to him will have hurt worse than any beating."

"What'd you say to him?"

"Doesn't matter," Adrian exhaled, staring out the windshield. "Nothing fucking matter anymore."

Heartbreak wasn't Tommy's area of expertise. Jess usually handled Adrian's relationship drama, she had a front row seat to it, she knew the players better than he did. He doubted there was anything he could say or do to make his brother feel better about whatever the hell had gone down between him and his boy, but saying nothing made him feel like an asshole of the highest order.

"You sure that's all that's going on?" Tommy couldn't help but wonder if there was something more to stress that seemed to be bearing down on his brother's shoulders. "You've never run home to Ma over bullshit with you and Deran before."

"I'm not running," Adrian claimed indignantly. "I couldn't walk two blocks in Oceanside without bumping into one of Deran's brothers or someone we both know. I needed some distance from all that so I could breathe."

"Uh huh," Tommy could understand that, still didn't think it was all about the kid's split with his boy though. "Out of curiosity, if I call Jess, ask her why you bailed, she gonna give me the same story?"

"After getting over the shock of me being here and not where I told her I would be going, yeah."

"And where did she think you were going?"

"Somewhere else."

"That's specific."

"What do you want from me, Tommy?" Adrian groused, flicking ash out the window. "I'm here. What does it matter why?"

"It doesn't," It shouldn't have, but when he was getting the runaround instead of answers, it sure as hell did. "I'm just trying to understand. You look like shit, man. I need to know you're all right."

"I am. I'm always okay. No one's gotta worry about me. That's my appeal, right?" Adrian grumbled, shaking his head. "I can't step out of line. I can never make a mistake. I can't upset the balance in any way that could prevent the rest of you from doing whatever the hell you like, whenever you like."

"Oh yeah, a little outburst like that and you still want me to believe this all about the idiot boyfriend?" Tommy snorted, rolling his eyes. "Come on. I'm your brother. You can be straight with me."

"I am being straight with you," Adrian sighed tiredly, scrubbing a hand down his face. "I flew out here because things with Deran and me came to a head and I couldn't be there anymore. I didn't know where else to go."

"That's part of it, but it's not everything. You're not telling me everything. I'd bet you didn't even tell Jess everything," Tommy wasn’t the most honest of people either, but he expected Adrian to be a better man than him. "I mean, fuck, kid, you ever give any of us the full truth?"

"No," Adrian admitted, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "I give you guys just enough to keep you out of my shit."

"'Cause that's working out for you," Tommy huffed, fingers flexing over the steering wheel. "How about we start with a truth a little closer to home."

"Sure," Adrian nodded, stubbing the cigarette out on his pant leg. "Why don't you tell me what the fuck happened to your eye."

"Why don't you tell me why my connect wants you at this meeting."

"How the hell should I know?"

"Don't bullshit me, Adrian," Tommy was just about on his last nerve with his brother's evasiveness. "If you know why Jason wants you there--"

"Yeah, I've got a few ideas."

"Share ‘em with me."

"Something tells me you're going to find out soon enough."

* * *

Deran had picked up two untraceable drop phones for he and Adrian when they were gathering supplies in preparation to leave town. He loaded them with the numbers of their closest relatives and presented one to Adrian in a moment when he had briefly pushed back against the decision to runaway, unwilling to leave his sister and niece, his mother and his brother. The phone was Deran's way of showing him that leaving didn't mean abandoning the people they loved, they might not see them again, but they could still make contact once they were out of the country.

Sitting on the porch outside Craig's house, Deran had tried to call the phone he’d tucked away in Adrian's bag. He didn't get an answer, not that he expected one after the way they had left things, but it wasn’t like Adrian to leave him hanging, no matter how pissed off he was. Deran would have preferred a one-worded text to let him know he was okay or a simple 'fuck you' message to radio silence. Adrian had never gone completely dark on him before, it scared the hell out of him.

Adrian might not have been up to speaking to him, but Deran knew he would never allow his family to worry about him if he could help it. Whether he used the phone he’d been given or a payphone on the street corner, Adrian would have made contact with them as soon as he felt safe enough to do so. Deran just had to figure out which Dolan or Egan would be willing to cough up the details to him of all people.

Jess was probably the last person in the world who would help him, he designated her as the nuclear option, one he would only resort to if he couldn't get answers out of anyone else. Adrian's brother Tommy played nice with him for Adrian's sake, but Deran always got the sense that the dude wanted to dangle him off the Queensboro Bridge just for shits and giggles, so for safety reasons he avoided all contact with him if he could help it. Adrian hadn't spoken to his dad or stepmom since he moved out of their place when he was fourteen, Deran doubted he would reach out to them for any reason. There was only one real option if Deran wanted answers, one person who, if he was lucky, would be too blitzed out to lie to him.

"Hey, Kate," Deran kept his voice even, composed, not wanting to spook Adrian’s mother or give her cause to worry if she were in the dark about what was going on. "It's Deran Cody, Adrian's friend."

_"I have a vague recollection.”_

“Yeah, you should,” He and Adrian had been friends since they were toddles for fuck sake. “We’ve met quite a few times.”

“_What do you want?"_

"Well, um, Adrian and I got into a fight," The best lies always held a modicum of truth. "And I think he's ghosting me or something. I just wanted to know if you'd heard from him."

_"If he doesn't want to talk to you, he doesn't want to talk to you. Take the hint."_

"I just want to know if he's okay," He needed some kind of reassurance that nothing had happened to Adrian en-route, that he hadn't been picked up by the cops or hurt in some way. "I don't have to talk to him if he doesn’t want to talk to me. If you could just tell me if you've heard from him, that he's all right..."

_"How would I know how he is? I haven't spoken to that kid in months."_

"That’s a load a crap," Deran knew for a fact Adrian called his mother at least once a week, he'd teased him about it mercilessly. "Look, Kate, I'm not trying to start anything, okay? I just need..."

_"What you need is none of my damn concern."_

"Right," He couldn't argue with that. "If you hear from him, can you just...can you just call me? Can you let me know he's okay?"

_"No, I can’t." _

“Kate—“

“_**No.”**_

* * *

Contrary to what the Codys might have thought, Adrian was perfectly capable of keeping his mouth shut, and to no one more than or about the people closest to him. For example, the Codys had zero idea what Adrian's brother did for a living, Deran may have had a few ideas based off interactions the pair had in the past but knew nothing definitive, and the only reason Tommy knew the Codys were thieves was because Jess had told him and then he'd looked into them on his own. Adrian had never confirmed or denied anything regarding any of them. The way he saw it, their business was their business, and just because they felt comfortable sharing details with him didn't mean he had the right to share those details with anyone else.

However, there seemed to be some sort of expectation from others about what he knew and how he would use it or how he would be used because of it. Detective Pearce hadn't given two fucks about him or what he had done, he just saw Adrian as a way to get to Deran. As for Jason, well, he saw Adrian as a commodity.

"Glad you both could join me," Jason greeted them warmly. "The fuck happened to your eye, Tommy?"

"Oh, this? It ain't nothing," Tommy pressed two fingers to the contusion beneath his right eye. "Family dispute. Got into a little scuffle with Ghost. I chose to be the bigger man and dead the beef."

"Smart man. Don't let anything or anyone disturb our business," Jason said approvingly, gaze settling on Adrian. "I was beginning to think little brother was the only one who understood that."

"Sorry, what?" Tommy faltered, glancing between them. "What do you mean by that?"

"Adrian's been working for me for the last several months," Jason revealed, patting Adrian on the back. "I didn't think you would mind me reaching out. This is a family business for you, right, Tommy?"

"What, uh," Tommy cleared his throat. "What kind of work he been doing for you?"

"I told you I wanted you to run both East Coast and West Coast, and, well, I thought little brother could help carve out some territory for you in his neck of the woods. He grew up there, he knows the crews. He was the perfect person to put in play," Jason grinned, proud of his decision to put Adrian in the field. "I will admit, I was skeptical of the plan he put on the table. I mean, getting in with a crew just to turn them into the cops came with a lot of risks and uncertainty, but when last we spoke it seemed to have worked out."

"Jack and his organization are off the board and out of the way," The DEA had been thorough, Adrian would give them that, they had rounded up Jack, the dealers who worked under him, his bosses, and their connect. "Your people have already set up shop in their territory."

"And all without a turf war, I'm impressed," Jason clapped his hands together. "The only hitch in your plan would be the deal you made with the DEA."

"That had nothing to do with the job you asked me to do. The job went the way it was supposed to. My deal got pulled because of a personal connection," His deal would have been in the bag had the cops not found out about his relationship to Deran and the Codys. "If you're going to use a similar plan to take over other territories without a war, I suggest the person you choose to infiltrate local crews and make deals with the cops shouldn’t have any ties to other criminal organizations."

"You know, I like you Adrian. I like your work ethic," Jason praised him, all the while leveling Tommy with some major side-eye. "You do as you’re told. You don't complain or make excuses. And, you didn't try to make your problem my problem, which is why I'm going to help you out with the DEA."

"Thank you," Adrian would accept any help he could to avoid jail time, but he did have concerns. "Look, I don't want to presume anything about the way you do business, but as much as I'd love not to spend the next fifteen years in prison, I don't want anyone innocent to get hurt trying to keep me out of it."

"I'm not in the business of hurting women or children when money can get my point across," Jason assured him. "You're lucky you've been profitable to me."

"Speaking of profits. My days of having issues with my distro are over. I got my old crew back. And these motherfuckers is hungry. Here," Tommy held out a check to Jason. "I need product so I can keep them fed and your pockets fat."

"Uh-huh," Jason looked over the check, making sure the I’s were dotted and T’s were crossed. "This money you cleaned through Ghost?"

"Yeah," Tommy scratched the side of his head. "Like I said, me and him, we good."

"Fine," Jason slipped the check in his pocket. "Come back for a pickup later tonight."

"No, Jason. Tonight?" Tommy protested. "I'm going to see that crew right now. I ain't trying to show up empty-handed.”

"I'll see you _**tonight**_," Jason said forcefully, leaving no room for argument. "I just want to make sure this check clears.

"Okay," Tommy backed down. "I'll see you later."

* * *

Deran began to really regret his decision to stay not long after he and his brothers jumped Angela's brother in the middle of the street. Pope said it was about showing Oceanside they were still there, they were still to be feared without Smurf around, but it felt like they were just doing Angela's bitch work. It didn't make them look tough or seem smart, all it did was prove to the public that they were still nothing more than the thugs Smurf turned them into.

The congratulatory mid-morning meal they had all shared afterward at Smurf’s house didn't change anything. Things were still tense between J and Pope. Craig was distracted by text messages from Renn about baby Nick. Angela was lurking around every fucking corner, just waiting to butt into everyone's business. And Deran just...well, he just wanted the one thing he'd sent away.

The fact that he was still around when he was supposed to have left didn't slip anyone's notice. Craig and Pope had flashed him worried yet suspicious glances, at one point going off to talk amongst each other while tossing him looks over their shoulders every so often. They didn't have to clue him in, he knew they were happy he didn't leave, but pissed he let Adrian go on his own, and it had nothing to do with Adrian's wellbeing.

They were all in agreement that Adrian couldn't go to prison, he wouldn't have fared well there, and whether he wanted to or not, one day he would have turned on them to save himself. If he had gone to prison, they would have had to kill him to protect themselves from that future betrayal. Leaving the country was the best option for him, but only if Deran went with him to keep him complacent and compliant, to give him a reason not to come home. Sending him out on his own with anger in his heart was a grave error on Deran's part. In his brother's minds, he had pretty much given Adrian motive to sell them all down the river.

As much as Deran dreaded returning home to the unwelcoming silence he knew would be waiting for him, he could not deal with the stares and disapproval from his brothers. No one stopped him when he tried to leave, but by the time he got home, he wished someone had.

"What the fuck?"

There was an empty space in the garage where Adrian's truck had been that morning, and it wasn't the only thing that had suddenly disappeared. The bicycle Adrian hadn't ridden in years but refused to get rid of 'just in case' was no longer mounted on the wall. Adrian's snowboard, his skateboard, his surfboards, they was all gone.

The house wasn't any different. There was something of Adrian's missing from every room, from trivial and insignificant things to the precious and meaningful.

The built-in shelf in the hall that once prominently displayed the trophy from Adrian’s four-star win was now empty and bare. The record player Tommy had sent Adrian when he moved into his first apartment was no longer collecting dust in the stereo cabinet. There was an open space on the stove where the kettle Jess had given them as a housewarming gift used to sit. The ugly jacket with the tribal pattern that Adrian’s mom had bought him for his birthday wasn’t tossed over the arm of the couch anymore.

The pillows and blankets Adrian brought over from his old place had been stripped from their shared bed. The coffee mug Adrian bought from a gift shop in Belize wasn’t tucked away in the cupboard. Adrian’s favorite beach towel wasn’t out drying on the deck. Even Adrian’s goddamn shampoo and aftershave were gone.

His home, _**their**_ home, had been stripped clean of every single one of Adrian’s belongings that Deran had left to hold onto.

* * *

Tommy was amazed by his own restraint, honestly. Somehow, some way, he had managed to put anything to do with Jason and his brother working together behind him until after he dealt with his crew. Okay, sure, dealing with his crew meant executing a mouthy primera and promoting another, but after all that squirrely shit they'd put him through with Dre, they should have known to be on their best fucking behavior. Shit, it's not like Tommy was known for his calm and cool demeanor, if they wanted that shit they should have been working for his baby brother, who was a little too calm when the sky was fucking falling.

"Fifteen-motherfucking-years!" Tommy shrieked, unable to keep his mouth shut once they were in the privacy of his apartment. "What the fuck, Adrian?"

"You didn't have to shoot that guy, you know," Adrian skirted around his own shit, as usual. "I think a broken jaw would've done the trick."

"Don't change the subject!" Tommy snapped, pulling a beer from the fridge just to have something to do with his hands so he didn’t throttle the kid. "Fifteen years! You think you can do fifteen years? When's the last time you spent longer than a night in a cell?"

"In juvie, when I was seventeen," Adrian said, failing elaborate on a few important details like the charges and the length of his previous incarceration. "Jason said he'd get me out of it. Relax."

"Relax? Fuck you. Jason got you the fuck into it," If Tommy was feeling suicidal he'd cap the son of a bitch. "Unless, for some dumbass fucking reason, you went to him—which was not the impression I got."

"He came to me while I was on the surf tour."

"So Jason approached you about opening up territory in Oceanside," That much he was clear on. "And your bright idea was to get in with a local crew, get caught with some weight, and then turn rat. Does that sound about right?"

"It was the plan with the least amount of bloodshed. I knew the guys I was turning in, I grew up with them, I didn't want to see them get killed in a gang war," Adrian defended his questionable plan. "And I mean, with them in jail, their territory would be up for grabs. Jason got what he wanted, I got paid, and no one got killed."

"You could've gotten yourself killed," There was so many things that could've gone wrong, Tommy couldn't even think about it without seeing red. "And for some unfathomable reason, you decided not to tell me, your big brother, what was going on."

"Jason told me not to. If I had told you anyway, you would have confronted him about it and we'd both probably be dead," Adrian reasoned, pouring himself a glass of whiskey from Tommy's good stash. "You're the one who said the guy eats his enemies. I didn't want to be Sunday dinner."

"Your skinny ass would be an appetizer. I'd be dinner," Tommy puffed out his chest. "And Jason's not the one who eats people. That was Milan. Same organization, different guy."

"You know how many connects you've been through the last few years?" Adrian cocked his head to the side. "I'm supposed to keep track of all their quirks?"

"What kind of people you been running with that you think cannibalism’s a quirk?" Tommy thought of it more as a strange life choice himself. "Back on topic. Here's what I don't understand, if you made a deal with the cops, why you still looking at fifteen years in the slammer?"

"The cops pulled my deal over bullshit," Adrian grumbled, taking a swig from the tumbler. "And if Jason does his part, I won't be doing those fifteen years, thank god."

"You told Jason it was a personal connection that got your deal yanked," Tommy was pretty sure that connection wasn't him, which left one person. "Found out your boy was a crook, huh?"

"They wanted me to gather evidence on him," Adrian confessed, sorrow painting his features. "I told them to charge me and they did."

"Hope your boy appreciated that."

"He didn't," Adrian acknowledged, knocking back the rest of his drink in one long gulp. "The hell do you think I'm doing here?"

"That's why you split?" That made absolutely no sense whatsoever. "The cops wanted you to flip on him and you refused. He found something wrong with that?"

"Something like that, yeah."

"There's more to this story," Details had obviously been omitted for reasons Tommy wasn’t aware of yet. "And I want to hear it."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"We'll talk about it later," Tommy had another troubled kid to tend to at the moment. "But right now I gotta meet up with 'Riq. He needs my help with something."

"Does that have anything to do with your 'scuffle' with Jamie?" Adrian gestured to Tommy's black eye with his empty glass. "You two having another domestic?"

"Let's just say you picked a hell of a time to come home."

"Tommy, come on."

"Look, you're going to find out anyway, so I might as well tell you... You remember when I told you about Teresi being my old man? Well, Ghost manipulated me into killing him. He gave the Italians surveillance photos of Teresi talking to the cops, told them to tell me that Teresi was rattin' on me, so I would... And I..." He had played right into Ghost's hands, shooting his own father in cold blood. "This fed came to my door afterward, gave me recordings of their meetings with Teresi. He wasn't ratting on me. He had only given them shit on Ghost."

"I'm sorry, Tommy," Adrian said sympathetically. "I can't even imagine...."

"I couldn't let it go, A. Not this time. Not this betrayal," He had let so much of Ghost's bullshit slide, but conning him into murdering his own father, that was a step way over the fucking line. "I followed him. I tried to kill him, but Angela pushed him out of the way, took the bullet for him."

"Angela? The chick he's been stepping out on Tasha with?" Adrian furrowed his brows. "Isn't she a fed?"

"She was," Dead fed now. "Anyway, Ghost and I would have killed each other if 'Riq hadn't shown up this morning."

"Tommy, I know you love Tariq, I do too, he's our nephew, but Jamie is still his father," Adrian reminded him, as if it was something that could be easily forgotten. "Do you really think, after what that kid has been through already, that it's a good idea to put him in the middle of your and Jamie's shit?"

"I don't want to put him in the middle, but I can't abandon him either," Tommy had promised Tasha and Ghost that he would protect Raina and Tariq when he agreed to be their godfather the day they were born. He had failed Raina, wasn't there when she needed him the most, he wouldn't make the same mistake with 'Riq. "The kid's going through some shit, A. He's got all this crap Kanan put in his head. Ghost keeps gettin' on him about every little goddamn thing. You should've seen the way he was laying into him when he was here earlier."

"I get it, I do, but, look, this stuff with 'Riq and Jamie, I've seen it play out. Okay? I watched it with Deran and his brothers and their mom," Adrian set his glass aside and leaned over the kitchen island, palms flat on the surface. "They hated her and she gave them every reason to. She did some god-awful shit to them. For years, they have all wished she was dead, and a few days ago, they finally got that wish. And guess what? Hating her hasn't made that loss any easier. They are still grieving her right now and trying to figure out how to live without her."

"What're you trying to say, A?"

"Do not make Tariq complicit in whatever happens between you and Jamie," Adrian enunciated each word carefully so he couldn't be misunderstood. "If something happens to either of you and he believes he had a hand in it, it will destroy him. He already feels responsible for the death of his twin sister. He cannot have his father or uncle's death on his conscience too."

"I don't want that for him either, okay?" The last thing Tommy wanted was to cause more problems for his godson. "You know, you startin' to sound like Tasha."

"Tasha's a smart woman," Adrian smiled fondly. "I'm having dinner with her later."

"When the fuck'd you set that up?"

"I was texting her from your phone while you were ‘demoting’ Hondo."

"_Poncho._"

"Whoever."

"Hey, I know you and Tasha are tight and all," Tommy fully approved of their friendship up until they started ganging up on him about one thing or another. "But I was hoping you'd lay low a while you're in town, just until this shit with me and Ghost is settled. I don't want him to try to use you to get to me."

"Jamie's been like another brother to me since I was born. You made sure I didn't think of him any differently than I did you," Adrian frowned. "Now you want me to think he'd hurt me?"

"I killed the woman he loved, Adrian. Any bonds we had with him are broken," The man had stood right there that morning and told 'Riq they weren't family anymore. "The same rules that applied when you were growing up don't mean shit anymore."

"I'll be careful," Adrian promised. "But I'm not going to spend all my time here locked away in Mom's house."

"Fine," It wasn’t like Tommy could chain him to the radiator when the kid knew how to pick a lock. "You go out, I want you carrying."

"Uh-uh. I do not need a gun charge right now," Adrian objected, shaking his head. "I'm not even clear of my drug trafficking charges yet."

"Then I guess you're canceling dinner," Tommy decided with a shrug. "Tasha's gonna be disappointed."

"Fine," Adrian relented, sagging his shoulders. "If it'll make you feel better, I'll take the damn gun."

"Damn right you will."

* * *

Once upon a time, Jess had liked Deran, treated him like a brother. Deran couldn't pin down an exact moment when that changed, but he was confident it wasn't a recent thing. In truth, he had given her plenty of reasons to hate him, stringing Adrian along for as long as he did, and putting him in that hospital that one time. Really, he was lucky Jess hadn't run him over with her car by now.

After he and Adrian moved in together, there was an unspoken rule that Jess didn't come by the house unless necessary, whether that was a rule of Adrian's making or Jess's, Deran wasn't sure. Deran tried to respect the line the Dolan siblings had drawn, avoiding any situation that could result in a confrontation between him and Jess. Deran had only broken that unspoken rule and crossed that line once, when Adrian had moved out, and after the attitude Jess had greeted him with then, he never had any intention of doing it again, until now that was.

Now, Adrian was gone again, this time with Deran's blessing. What Deran had not agreed to was losing every little piece of Adrian he had left, and the moment he'd found it all missing, he knew exactly who had snatched it from him. Finding Adrian's truck parked in her driveway was the only confirmation he needed to know he was on the right track.

"You took Adrian's stuff," Deran laid into her the second the front door swung open. "You came into our home and you took his things."

"Yes, I did," She didn't lie or try to deny it, that wasn't her style. "It's not yours. You don't have any claim to it."

"When the cops coming looking for him," And they would just as soon as he missed his scheduled court date. "If they search my house, his legal residence, they're going to wonder why his shit isn't there."

"They'll think he left you. Isn't that what you want?" Jess questioned, crossing her arms over her chest. "They won’t know it was the other way around. You still get to play the victim, just like you always do.

"You know that it was me?" If she knew he was the one who backed out, that could only mean one thing. "You've talked to him."

"I don't need my brother to tell me that you're a pussy," Jess retorted hotly. "I've watched this shit play out your entire lives. No matter how many times Adrian steps up for you, you won’t do the same for him. Push to comes to shove, you always choose the people you've spent your life hating."

"They're my family," He couldn't just leave them, especially not now that Smurf was gone.

"And Adrian's just your piece of ass."

"No," Deran and Adrian's relationship had never been simple or easy to explain, but it was always about far more than sex. "I-I love him."

"Don't. Don't throw that lie at me," Jess snarled at him. "You are not capable of the feeling, you never have been. You have proved that time and time again."

"You don't know anything about how I feel about Adrian," Deran had been loved Adrian in one way or another since they were kids and no one was going to take that from him. "You can hate me all you want, but you don't get to tell me how I feel about your brother."

"Adrian has bent over backwards to accommodate you and your family, and you guys haven’t lifted a finger for him. He got himself wrapped in some bad shit and he owned that. He had that handled, until the cop with a hard-on for Mama Smurf got in the way and fucked it all up," Jess laid out the facts. "And when that cop said _'you give up Deran or you do fifteen years'_ what did he do, Deran? _**What did he do?**_"

"He chose me."

"He chose you. He was going to do fifteen years _**for you**_," Jess thrust a palm against his chest, shoving him back several steps. "But that wasn't enough for your family, was it? He kept his mouth shut and you still wanted him dead."

"No. Not me. I didn't," Deran shook his head. "I didn't want him to get hurt. I got him out."

"Yeah, you sure did," Jess spit out. "Making him a fugitive because you're too scared to stand up to your brothers. How noble of you."

"What did you want me to do?" His brother's didn't listen to him, they never had. "If he had stayed, if he had gone to prison..."

"He's still in prison, Deran, don't you get it? He can't come home. He'll probably never see his friends or family again," Jess bit her lip, holding back tears. "It was your idea to run. You promised him you would go together, that you would make a life together. But you backed out. You sent him somewhere he’s never been before, where he doesn’t know anyone. He's out there, lost and alone, and that is on you and your family."

"I wanted to go. I didn't want to leave him. I just...I couldn't...," Staying behind was the hardest decision Deran had ever made. "I couldn't leave my family, Jess, you have to understand that."

"You're not the only one with a family, Deran!" Jess shouted, face flushed with anger. "But, you know, I don't expect that to matter to you, it never has before. Adrian, like everyone else, only exists to you as far as you can use him."

"That is bullshit.”

"You use and discard people, Deran, just like Mommy did," Jess sneered, contempt dripping from her tone. "Adrian was a good fuck for you. A sounding board for all the crap you didn't want to take to your family. And now that he's successfully kept you out of handcuffs, not for the first time, you don't need him anymore. He's served his purpose."

"What’s that supposed to mean? _‘Not for the first time'_?" By Deran's count, the cops had only pressed Adrian once. "Wha-What else did he do?"

"You ever wonder why Adrian sold his stake in Real Surf?" Jess asked curiously. "He did it for you. He gave up the one thing he had for himself, because of you."

"I don't…" He had known that Tao had bought Adrian out, but he had always assumed Adrian needed the money pay for college, he never thought for a second it had anything to do with him. "I don't understand."

"Yeah, well, I'm not explaining it to you," Jess threw her hands in the air, fed up with the entire conversation. "We both know it won't make a goddamn difference anyway."

"Jess..."

"Just go away, Deran," Jess sighed, every bit of fight leaving her. "Don't come back here. Don't go around my dad's place asking questions. You lost the right to know anything about Adrian when you left him on his own."

* * *

The restaurant Tasha had chosen for dinner was nicer than Adrian was accustomed to. Fell closer to the formal attire side of things than it did casual, leaving him feeling entirely out of place in his jeans, tee, and flannel over-shirt. Without Tasha on his arm, he was pretty sure the maitre d’ wouldn't have let him in at all.

"You're not eating," Tasha noted, motioning to his full plate with her fork. "You all right?"

"Just not very hungry," Adrian grimaced, pushing the plate of food away. "Probably shouldn't have ordered anything."

"From the looks of you, you haven't been hungry for a while," Tasha said pointedly. "You've lost weight since the last time I saw you."

"Yeah," It was hard to deny something like that when his clothes were hanging off him like he was a bad hanger. "Mom will probably try to bulk me up while I'm here."

"I'm sure Kate's happy to have one of her boys home to shower her with attention," Tasha chuckled. "I know Tommy hasn't been getting out there to see her as often as she’d like him to."

"Guess he wouldn't with all the stuff going on with him and Jamie," Adrian was willing to bet his brother tried to keep his distance to keep their mother from becoming collateral damage in the brewing war. "How are you doing with all that? It can't be easy being caught between your husband and your brother."

"On one hand, Ghost is the father of my children and I don’t want them to lose him. On the other hand, he has put us through so much these last few years. He's taken so much from our family, from me. I…." Tasha trailed off, gathering her thoughts. "You remember when I told you about that man I was seeing? Terry?"

"The lawyer? Yeah, you said things were getting pretty serious," He'd been happy to hear she was finally finding some happiness after all she'd been through. "What's he got to do with any of this?"

"I think... I think Ghost killed him," Tasha whispered, careful not to let other restaurant patrons overhear. "Maybe I could understand if he did it because Terry was a threat, cooperating with the feds and shit, but..."

"You think it was about you?" Adrian wouldn’t have put it past Jamie to pull something like that. "Jamie’s way of trying to keep you from being with someone else?"

"That's what Mama thinks, but I'm not so sure," Tasha set her lips in a grim line. "I mean, he chose Angela. He broke up our family over her. He wanted her. He wouldn't give me a divorce, but he didn't want to be with me anymore."

"But he wasn't going to let anyone else have you either," Adrian had experience with that particular brand of possessive and controlling behavior. "Been there myself."

"Yeah?"

"Two years ago, Deran had done something and I was done--"

"He beat your ass and you gave him the boot."

"I guess Tommy filled you in after Jess filled him in," Adrian couldn't keep anything on the DL without his well-meaning siblings colluding against him. "Anyway. After I healed up, Jess set me up with this guy, Dave. He was really nice guy, a little boring, but sweet. It was never going anywhere; it was just a nice break from the drama and pain that came with Deran."

"Somehow Deran found out."

"They crossed paths at the beach," Wasn't that just a nice, big fuck you from the universe. "Deran must have followed us on our date that night, because as soon as I got home he was breaking into my apartment to reclaim his territory. The next night, I'm getting a call telling me someone had dumped Dave off his own boat two-miles out to sea."

"You think your boy did it," Tasha deduced. "Be a big coincidence if he didn't."

"Deran couldn't do it himself, Dave could identify him by name, so he sent his oldest brother do it," It hadn't been hard to figure out it was Pope, Craig would've asked too many questions, Pope would have done whatever Deran had asked so long as Deran did what he was told in return. "Dave barely survived, was in and out of the hospital for months with infections. And while he was struggling with the trauma of being attacked, of nearly drowning, I convinced this completely innocent guy to lie to the cops, tell them he didn’t remember anything. I told him to forget what Deran's brother looked like, to forget any of it ever happened."

"Did you ever confront Deran about it?"

"He denied everything," Adrian was willing to bet he still would. "Deran rarely finds it in himself to take responsibility for his actions."

"Sounds a lot like Ghost," Tasha muttered, sipping her wine. "You know that son of a bitch had the audacity to act like Tommy pulled that shit with him and Angela out of the blue, no rhyme or reason for it."

"Always playing the victim," For men like Jamie and Deran, that was the card they knew how to play best. "And we let them, you know. We let shit go. We make excuses for them. We cover for them when they take shit too far."

"We're loyal to the end of the line," Tasha acknowledged, sounding disappointed. "They never would have loved us if we weren't."

"You know, Tommy and Jamie used to go on and on about loyalty, like it was something sacred," They had led Adrian to believe it was the most important thing a man could have in the world. "I've learned recently that the people who expect loyalty the most will never be loyal to anyone but themselves.”


	2. You're Thirsty for Blood, You're Picking a Fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd.  
Chapter title comes from: [Family by Noah Gundersen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkvZ4vbVzvk)  
Gif sets: [Tommy](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/187531065391/animal-kingdom-power-fic-scene-tommy-im-sorry), [Retaliate](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/187597270671/animal-kingdom-power-fic-scene-retaliate-ghost), [Cody Name](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/187520535961/animal-kingdom-power-fic-scene-cody-name-how-do)
> 
> Set during Power 6x04 Whose Side Are You On

Adrian wasn't exactly a night club guy, he preferred a cheap beer on the beach to loud music and overpriced booze. He had only been to Jamie's club,_ Truth_, a handful of times since the opening, and almost always for the same reason: to talk Jamie about Tommy.

"Adrian," Jamie greeted him with a smile and a firm hug. "You come into town and don't come see me until I come calling for you? What's up with that, brother?"

"Oh, well, I haven't been in town more than a day, man," He wasn't exactly in the most social of moods as it was. "And I know you and Tommy are kind of on the outs again. I didn't want to get in the middle, you know."

"I get it," Jamie's winning smile didn't falter as he poured them both a glass of something that smelled strong at the bar. "What did Tommy tell you about what's been going on?"

"Just that something that was going on," Adrian lied, hoping the other man wouldn't pick up on it. "He didn't get into specifics and I didn't ask. Like I said, I don't want to be in the middle."

"Right, right."

"So, um, who's Rashad Tate?" Adrian asked, gesturing to the banners decorating the club. "Can't be help but notice all the signage in his honor around here."

"Local Councilman running for governor," Jamie said with only a hint of disdain in his tone. "Good man. He's the one helping me get the _Queens Child Project_ up and running."

"That community center dedicated to Raina? That's great," Raina had loved helping people, giving the children of the community a place to go was the perfect way to honor her. "How's that going?"

"Slower than I'd like, but we're hoping to break ground soon," Jamie sighed, sliding a tumbler into his hands. "So, about why I wanted you to meet me this morning."

"Right," Down to business. "What's going on? Tasha and the kids okay?"

"It's about Tommy," Jamie paused, taking a swig of his drink. "Something happened last night. I wanted you to hear it from me first."

"Okay," Adrian wouldn't allow himself to fear the worst. Tommy and Jamie had been at each other's throats before and it all worked out in the end, it would this time too. "What happened?"

"You probably don't remember Angela, but she and I were together in high school--"

"She's the woman you've been cheating on Tasha with,” It was hard not to be judgmental when one of his closest friends was left with a broken family as a result of that affair. “I know exactly who Angela Valdes is to you, Jamie.”

"She's the woman I love._** Loved**_. Tommy took her from me. He killed her. He killed the woman I loved," Jamie's lips curled up in a snarl, letting his true emotions shine, before carefully schooling his features. "If someone killed the person you loved-- What was his name? Deran? If someone killed Deran, what would you do?"

"Probably not the best time to ask me that," Adrian was in a very angry place where Deran was concerned and he couldn't trust his answer. "What I would do doesn't matter. What did _**you**_ do?"

"I killed him," Jamie confessed, voice painfully calm, as if he was unaware of the bomb he had just dropped. "I killed Tommy. I killed our brother."

"Oh god..." Adrian doubled over, bracing himself on the bar as waves of grief crashed over him. "Oh, shit.”

He tried to think. He racked his brain for a text or phone call from Tommy he might have gotten late in the night or early in the morning that would prove Jamie was just mistaken, but there was nothing. He hadn't spoken to his brother since they were together at his loft the previous afternoon.

"I'm sorry it had to go down like that, but I couldn't let Tommy walk away after what he did," Jamie placed a comforting around Adrian's back. "This doesn't change anything between you and me, okay? We're still family. We're gonna get through this together."

"I-I don't...I don't understand," Adrian heaved, a sob catching in his throat. "W-Why-- Why--"

"He killed Angela."

"_**Why**_?" Adrian knew why, he and Tommy had that discussion yesterday, he just wanted to see what answer Jamie would give. "Why would he kill her? What reason would he have for wanting her dead?"

"That's the thing, Adrian, I don't know," Jamie claimed with a shake of his head. "That's the one thing I can't figure out."

The truth had never been Jamie's strong suit. His favorite pastime was prettying up a lie to make himself look better. Adrian wasn't quite sure why he expected it to be any different when it came to the motive of their brother’s death.

"Really?" Adrian took a deep breath, wrapping his fingers around the decanter Jamie had used to pour their drinks. "You sure it's not because you manipulated him into killing his own father?"

"_**You knew**_."

Adrian caught a glimpse his own hand shattering the decanter across Jamie's cheek before a well-placed right hook knocked him into the room divider. Jamie didn't give him a second to catch his breath, he was on Adrian in a second, his strong hands wrapping around his throat, restricting his breathing.

"Did you know what he was going to do?" Jamie growled, hot breath hitting his face. "Did he tell you? Did you know he was coming after me?"

The only response Adrian could manage was a swift jab to the throat and a head butt. Jamie reared back but recovered in a beat, sending a powerful punch to Adrian's gut, knocking the wind out of him.

"Shit..." Adrian stumbled, clutching his stomach, using the safety railing to keep himself on his feet.

Jamie was made a run at him and Adrian didn't fight it, he grabbed a handful of Jamie's suit coat and let the combination of the force of Jamie's impact and his own weight send them careening over the railing and onto the dance floor on the level below. A move he soon regretted when Jamie landed on top of him with a sickening thud.

"Oh fuck," Adrian coughed, pushing at Jamie's shoulders uselessly. "Fuck."

"Wasn't supposed to go down like this," Jamie grunted, lodging his elbow against Adrian's throat. "I wanted us to get past this. We're family."

"You killed my brother!" Adrian screamed, rage and loss digging into his bones and taking root. "We're not family!"

He braced his feet on the floor and twisted his hips, digging his nails into Jamie's shoulders and using all his strength to shove Jamie off him. He took advantage of their reversed positions by slamming his fist into Jamie’s face once, twice, and a third time before Jamie countered with a swipe to Adrian’s jaw. Adrian didn’t let the cheap shot hinder him, he wrapped his hands around Jamie’s throat, lifting his head up then bashing it down roughly, letting it ricochet off the floor.

"Ah fuck," Jamie groaned, eyes cinched in pain. "You still fight like a kid challenging someone twice his size just to prove that he's tough, just like fucking Tommy, man."

"Yeah. Yeah, just like _**Tommy**_," Adrian relinquished his hold on the other man and climbed to his feet. "I'm trying to... I'm trying to understand, Jamie."

"What's there to understand?" Jamie muttered scornfully, levering himself up. "What aren't you getting?"

"You and Tommy were brothers, always. For me it's been always," They had been best friends since before Adrian was born. "You've had your problems, yeah, but even when things were fucking awful between you, you always ended up where you started, as brothers."

"Not this time, A," Jamie stood tall, straightening his suit jacket. "There's too much blood and betrayal between us now. There's no going back."

"All that blood and betrayal over what?" Adrian asked, wiping blood from beneath his nose with his shirt cuff. "His long lost dad and your mistress? Were they really worth that much to you?"

"All right, that's enough," A stranger stepped out of the shadows, clapping his hands together. "Eloquent performance, gentleman, but Adrian's presence is requested elsewhere."

"Who the fuck are you?" Jamie stood protectively in front of Adrian, as if they hadn’t just been trading blows. "What do you want with him?"

"It's okay, Jamie," Adrian stepped around him, recognizing the stranger from the previous day. "He's one of Jason's guys."

"What the hell does Jason want with you?" Jamie scowled. "Don't tell me Tommy got you wrapped up in this shit."

"Tommy didn't," Adrian did that on his own. "It's all right. I'll go with him. I'll be fine.”

* * *

Jess wasn't a high maintenance woman, but after spending hours on a plane travelling cross-country with a temperamental toddler, she was expecting a family member to be waiting at the airport to give her a lift to their mother’s house. She had been looking forward to relaxing in the passenger seat and enjoying the passing scenery. She didn't think that was too much to ask, however, a series of texts from oldest brother proved otherwise.

_ **NEW MESSAGES **_ **(7)**

**TOMMY**: _need u to pick me up_

**TOMMY**: _get a rental_

**TOMMY**: _not a fucking minivan_

**TOMMY:** _ u try to pick me up in a minivan, Ima disown ur ass_

**TOMMY** _: try me lil sis_

**TOMMY:** _ I dare u_

**TOMMY:** _ sending u the address_

Jess never asked a lot of questions where her brothers were concerned, for the sake of her sanity. If they came to her for something, asked her to do one thing or another, she usually agreed with little prodding. A couch to sleep on, a shoulder to cry on, an alibi to confirm, she made it a point to be there for them whenever they needed her. The way she saw it, given their remarkably shitty taste in friends, if she wasn't on their side 100%, no one would be.

So, like the dutiful sister she was, she did what Tommy asked of her. She rented a car, a minivan, drove to the corner of so-and-so as instructed, and waited as patiently as she could. That patience was beginning to wear thin when a dark-colored Toyota pulled up to the curb across the street.

_"Who the fuck takes the Queensboro Bridge this time of day?"_ Tommy yelled as he got out of a car, slamming the door shut to exemplify his annoyance. _"I am giving you one star!"_

"Oh, what the hell..." Jess blinked owlishly. "Who let him order a ride-share?"

_"Fuck you!"_ The driver shouted through the window. _"You Eminem-looking fuck!"_

"_Now I'm giving you zero-stars_," Tommy exclaimed, thrusting an arm out at the driver. "_But keep testing me!"_

"Tommy!" Jess stuck her head out the window to yell at her brother. "Leave that man alone and get over here. You're embarrassing yourself!"

"Don't disrespect me in public!" Tommy pouted, stomping his feet all the way across the road to her rental. "And what the hell did I tell you about the minivan?”

"You know, you invited me here, you should've been the one picking me up, not the other way around," Jess griped as her older brother slid into the passenger seat. "Where's the Mustang?"

"You do not want to know," A flicker of grief passed over Tommy's face. "I'm going to the car dealership with Tasha later. I should have some new wheels this afternoon."

"Say hello to your niece," Jess motioned to her toddler strapped into the car seat in the back. "You haven't seen her since Christmas."

"Hey, Charlie girl," Tommy grinned, reaching back to tickle the baby’s feet. "I missed you. Were you good for your Ma on the plane?"

"As good as can be expected," The biggest down side Jess had found of motherhood was in knowing, eventually, she would be that woman with a screaming baby on a plane that people despised. "The pressure in the cabin, it's too much for babies, you know."

"Yeah, I know," He smiled sympathetically. "She seems okay now, though."

"She bounces back pretty quick," Her baby girl was resilient. "Takes after me."

"Damn right," Tommy leaned over to kiss her cheek. "Good to see you, sis."

"Wish it was under better circumstances," Next to a funeral, these were probably the worst circumstances they could be meeting under. "He at Mom's?"

"Yep."

"Okay," Jess turned the key over in the ignition. "Let's go."

"Oh, hey, no, we can't go out there yet," Tommy protested, hand latching on to the steering wheel. "I gotta meet with my crew. It won't take but a minute."

"Your crew? Hell no. My kid and I aren't going with you to a drug warehouse," Jess would rather not subject her little girl to that side of her brothers’ lives if she could help it. "We'll go to Ma's first, and then you can take the van wherever you need to go, if only so you can't harass another Uber driver."

"All right. My bad. Shit. I didn't think you'd mind the detour," Tommy huffed, holding his hands up in surrender. "I mean, Adrian's up to his fuckin' neck in my business, for all I know, you are too."

"Oh yeah," Jess could see that, in between being a mom, working full time, looking after their little brother, and attending Mommy & Me classes, she could totally be mixing it up in the drug game. "I've got a pill mill going in Charlie's diaper bag."

"Hey, you joke, but keeping my stash in Adrian's diaper bag kept the cops off me when I was selling to nannies and moms at the park in the upper-class neighborhoods," Tommy chuckled, seeming mighty pleased with himself. "No one was gonna suspect a guy with a toddler on his hip and diaper bag hanging off his shoulder."

"You just looked like an attentive older brother," Or a very young, attentive father, given the fourteen year age gap between the brothers. "That's why you were always so happy to take him out; he was the perfect cover for you."

"I did use him as a cover, but I never expected him to get involved in this stuff when he got older," Tommy said apologetically, obviously blaming himself, at least in part, for their brother's current troubles. "How long you known about all this shit going with him?"

"Not long," A few weeks at the most, Adrian hadn't shared anything was her until he was at least somewhat certain about how it would all play out, which at the time was a lengthy prison sentence. "I'm not really sure of anything about it, to be honest."

"He mentioned something yesterday about you being surprised that he would be here with me and not where he told you he'd be," Tommy brought up as they continued down the streets of New York. "Where did you think he was going?"

"Indonesia, that was the plan for him and Deran anyway," The kid hadn't been keen on sharing specifics, but she had managed to guilt him into giving her that much. "You know why he had to leave Oceanside?"

"No, baby brother hasn't exactly been forthcoming with information."

"You know about the deal he made with the feds, right?" Jess needed to know how much of the story she was going to have to tell if Adrian couldn't bring himself to do it. "You know it got pulled because he wouldn't rat on Deran's family?"

"Yeah, that much I know," Tommy confirmed. "Said his boyfriend had some kind of problem with it."

"Deran's family found out the cops had questioned Adrian about them, so they decided he had to die," That bit of information had been easier for Jess to convince Adrian to give up, only because he didn't want her to believe he was becoming a fugitive just to avoid jail time. "It doesn't matter that he kept his mouth shut, that he was willing to do the time, in their minds he was a threat."

"What the fuck kind of bullshit logic is that?"

"This isn't anything new. They've done this shit before with their own sister-in-law, and she wasn't even in trouble with the cops," That probably wasn't something the Codys wanted spread across town, but Oceanside was small, and that shit got around. Cath worked at a cop bar, one cop in particular was paying more attention to her than usual, people noticed, just like they noticed when she disappeared. "You're right, it doesn't make sense, but if you knew their mother you'd understand why they're like that."

"I'd suggest we talk to her, but Adrian said something about her kicking the bucket."

"May she rest in hell."

"Don't you mean '_**peace**_'?"

"I meant what I said," If anyone deserved to burn in the fiery brimstones, it was that heinous witch. "So anyway, the Codys wanted Adrian dead, so Deran's big plan was for he and Adrian to leave the country, go somewhere with no extradition. Adrian agreed because Deran would be with him, but Deran backed out the last minute and Adrian ended up here instead."

"Guess that explains why Adrian looking so destroyed yesterday," Tommy noted, shaking his head. "You should've let me kill that Cody bitch two years ago, after he put Adrian in the hospital."

"I wasn't the one who stopped you from doing that," If anything, she had encouraged him. "You let Adrian talk you out of it."

"All right. Fine. I take responsibility for bending to our brothers will," Tommy conceded. "But you are the one in Oceanside. You let them get back together. You should've put a pin in that shit before it got this far."

"You think I can control who Adrian sees?" Shit, if she had that ability, Deran would've stopped being a problem for them in high school. "Adrian and Deran, that bond runs deep. They met a week after we moved to Oceanside, Tommy. _**A week**_. They spotted each other on the beach, Craig and I weren't paying enough attention to them, I guess. They ran off to the water together when we weren't look and nearly drowned."

"You'd know better than me, but that feels like a really accurate description of their relationship."

"Running headfirst into trouble together? Yeah," There was a time when you couldn't tag one for something without nailing the other as well, they'd been attached at the hip, never apart long enough to not be party to each other’s bullshit. "Yeah, it used to be."

"Yeah."

"I'm worried about him, Tommy," She had been worried about their little brother since he came into the world, but it was different now. "So much of who he is, it's ingrained in his relationship with Deran, and I don't just mean the romantic one. They grew up together, they became who they are together. They don’t really know how to function without each other, on an emotional level, anyway.”

“You’re being dramatic.”

"No, you don't get it, Tommy. As awful as it can get when they are together, it gets so much worse when they're apart," She didn't know why or what it meant, but she didn’t like it. "And it goes both ways. They both turn into the worst versions of themselves when they're separated for long periods of time."

"Relax, little sis," Tommy patted her shoulder. "It's Adrian. How bad could it get?"

"If he's going to be spending time here during this separation," Which Jess hoped, by the grace of God, was permanent. "Then something tells me you're going to be finding out real soon.”

* * *

Deran couldn't sleep in the house alone. You think he'd be used to it given how often Adrian was away for the surf tour, but there was something different about it when he knew Adrian would never share that bed with him again. He had tossed and turned for as long as he could stand it before giving up, going to the bar, and curling up in the crawl space he'd called home prior to buying the house.

He slept longer than usual, waking up only when the delivery guy banged on the door to bring in the new shipment of beer. Deran was busy restocking the bar when there was another sharp knock on the door, this time from a particularly unwelcome guest.

"Detective Pearce," Deran had hoped he would never have to see or speak to him again. "What do you want now?"

"Oh, I wanted to personally come and offer my condolences on the loss of your mother," Pearce hummed, settling himself on one of the barstools. "It's always tragic to lose a parent."

"Yeah, I'm grief stricken," Deran muttered, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "You should've come to the wake. I hear a couple of your fellow boys in blue did. What are you really doing here, Detective?"

"Oh, I want to know about Agent Livengood," Pearce folded his hands together on the bar. "Specifically, what you did to him."

"Livengood? The DEA agent on Adrian's case?" Deran pled ignorance, as far as Pearce knew, he had never set eyes on the fed. "I wasn't aware anything happened to him."

"Physically, he seems fine," Pearce acknowledged. "But I have to assume something happened, he was threatened somehow, or perhaps his family was. Why else would he suddenly decide to put Adrian's deal back on the table?"

"He did?" If the detective didn’t have Deran’s attention before, he certainly did now. "Adrian's not going to prison?"

"He's not going to serve any time or probation," Pearce pursed his lips. "When Livengood first offered Adrian a deal, it was for full immunity, and that's what Adrian is getting."

"That's amazing," Or it would be, if Adrian were still home to accept the terms of that deal. "He's going to be relieved."

"You should be too, but you don't seem to be," Peace narrowed his eyes. "Maybe you're worried Livengood is going to give you up, tell me or his superiors what you did to force him to put Adrian's deal back on the table. He does that, you and Adrian will both go to jail."

"I didn't do anything," For once, Deran was telling the God's honest truth. "I've never even met Agent Livengood."

"I'm going to find out what you did," Pearce promised, rising from the stool. "When I do, I will make sure you and Adrian get maximum sentences and serve them in separate prisons. You will never see each other again."

"I didn't do anything to your guy," Yeah, initially, Deran had planned to beat Livengood into submission, but plans changed. "You can investigate all you want, you're not going to find anything connecting me to this."

"I went by your house looking for Adrian, he wasn't there," Pearce mentioned, shifting gears. "Went by sister's house, his truck was there, but neither he nor Jess were home. A nosy neighbor told me she saw Jess and her daughter leave late last night, and they had a lot of baggage with them."

"So?"

"I don't think Adrian's in Oceanside anymore. I think his sister knows where he is. I find out where she went, I'll know where he is," Pearce reasoned. “If he's not within the city limits, I could tell the judge he's fled prosecution. His immunity deal would go up in smoke. Just something to think about.”

* * *

> _ **"Always keep your head on a swivel, A. Never give people who think they own you a fucking inch. I don't care how scared you are, don't give them pussy ass motherfuckers an ounce of your fear. Never give 'em a reason to think you're weak."** _

Adrian repeated his brother's words in his head like a mantra as he stood in a shipping container outside Jason's warehouse. Tommy's Mustang was in front of him, bullet holes spread over the frontend and driver's side, the windshield splattered with blood. There was a tarp rolled up on the ground next to the car, feet protruding out the end. _**Tommy.**_

"I heard you had an eventful morning," Jason's calculating gaze roamed over his body, searching for injuries. "Do you need a doctor?"

"No," Adrian was a little banged up for sure, but nothing a few aspirin and hot shower couldn't fix, and not something he was worried about at the moment. "If you brought me here to tell me about my brother, I already know."

"No, I don't think you do," Jason crouched down, pulling the tarp back to reveal a vaguely familiar face hidden beneath, but not the one Adrian had been expecting. "This is one of my men, Stanomir. He was driving Tommy's car when Ghost shot it up. This is who was killed last night."

"Tommy’s alive…" Adrian exhaled, relief flooding through him. "He's alive?"

"He is. He's inside," Jason gestured to the warehouse on the other side of the property. "We'll join him in a minute. First, we have business."

"Okay."

"As I said yesterday, I want Tommy to run both my East and West Coast operations, but he can't be in two places at once, so I want you to be his proxy on the West Coast,” Jason clapped him on the back, if he noticed Adrian flinch at the contact, he didn’t let on. “You're from there, you know the people, and you know my people now. You trust Tommy, Tommy trusts you. Keeping you in play would make everything run much smoother than bringing in someone new."

"Um," What the hell was he supposed to say, _'Thanks, but no thanks'_? "I appreciate the offer--"

"Wasn't an offer," Jason stated clearly, leaving no room for argument. "You will be your brother's proxy."

"Look, man, getting in with Jack's crew and all that, that was simple. What you're ask-- What you want me to do now, that's nowhere near the same thing. I don't know shit about the drug business," Sure, he had dealt weed in high school, and picked up a few things watching Tommy and Jamie over the years, but he had no real experience in the big leagues. "I'm just a surfer, man."

"No, you _**were**_ a surfer," Jason corrected him. "Now, you're well on your way to becoming one of the biggest drug distributers in Southern California."

"Great," That was absolutely perfect. His dream come true. _**Fuck**_. "Mom will be so proud."

"And I do hope you're a quick learner, Adrian, because you cannot screw this up," Jason lips turned up in a tight, twisted smile. "Starting tomorrow, you should be shadowing Tommy, getting a feel for how things are done."

"Okay," If was getting deeper into the life, he might as well learn the tricks of the trade while he was in town. "Can I see Tommy now?"

"Of course," Jason flung an arm over Adrian's shoulders and led him out of the shipping container. "We all have a lot to discuss."

Adrian hadn't taken Jason for a touchy-feely person, so the way he kept his arm draped around him they crossed the lot was unnerving, to say the least. He tried not to let his discomfort show, limping along beside him until they were in the office and he was released from the strange hold.

"Adrian!" Tommy shot out of his chair. "What the hell happened to you? Who did this?"

"Ghost," Jason answered for him, moving around the brothers to his desk. "From what my man said, Adrian gave as good as he got, even had the upper hand for a minute."

"He what?" Tommy's eyes damn near bugged out of his head. "You did what, Adrian?"

"He told me you were dead," Adrian swallowed thickly, touching his brother's arm, checking to see that he was real and not a grief-induced hallucination. "He told me he killed you."

"And you reacted as any brother would," Jason absolved him of any misgivings he might have been having. "You don't give into it often, do you, Adrian?"

"Give in to what?"

"Your anger. I'd say you've got quite a bit of it coursing through your veins. You stew in it, let it boil inside of you when you should be finding a release for it," Jason tsked him, disapproving of his methods. "That's why you lost control today."

"I thought my brother had been murdered," He hadn't exactly been thinking clearly. "I thought he had killed Tommy."

"You lost control, that can't happen again," Jason said firmly, the air of authority swirling around him. "Neither of you will lay a hand on Ghost again. Is that clear?"

"Jason, what the fuck?" Tommy threw his hands in the air. "You told me to run or to fight, and I was fighting! I was trying to anyway. I was on my way when your guys grabbed me after I met with my crew."

"I changed my mind," Jason shrugged as he lowered himself into his desk chair. "Killing Ghost now would put too much heat on the organization."

"Not if no one knows it was me," Tommy pouted like a petulant child. "I was going to get him right outside Truth, after that fucking fundraiser. No one would've seen me."

"I said no, and if I catch wind of you continuing your pursuit, I will take away your drug supply," Jason threatened before setting his sights on Adrian. "And you, little brother, go after Ghost again and you are going to be paying me $100,000 dollars every two weeks, because that's what Ghost is paying me to let him live. Something happens to him and I find out you had a hand in it, that will be your debt to settle. Understood?"

"Yeah," Adrian cleared his throat. "Understood."

"You take away my drug supply, you're setting me up to die," Tommy argued his case. "If my primeras are out there running product, Ghost is bound to find out that I'm still alive, and as soon as he does, I'm fucking fucked. I ain't got no soldiers to protect me."

"You do now, at a charge," Jason swooped in with another solution to Tommy's endless stream of problems. "You can pay me for extra protection."

"All right, you know," Tommy considered that for a moment. "That might not be the worst thing.”

"But I'm warning you now: if you are late with any of my business, I will pull my men and I will let Ghost kill you," Jason warned him. "Now, let's talk about Adrian’s Cody problem."

"I wasn't aware I had one," Which, okay, wasn't the complete truth, or truth at all, but until Adrian knew what Jason was referring to, he wouldn’t cop to anything. "Is there something you know that I don't?"

"Our people in Oceanside have picked some chatter from the locals they've been getting to know," Jason leaned back in his chair, scrutinizing Adrian. "Not long after we made the payment to Agent Livengood and your deal was placed back on the table, the Codys reached out to the Trujillos to order a hit on you. They work fast."

“Stupid motherfuckers..." Tommy balled his hands in his fists, eyes wide and wild, bloodthirsty. "I'm gonna kill them."

"No, you're not," Adrian had a feeling he was going to have to keep Tommy on a tight leash for the foreseeable future. "The Codys aren't a viable threat."

"They're not or he's not?" Jason flipped over a photograph on his desk, a picture of Deran and Adrian talking beside his truck. "He is the reason your deal got pulled to begin with. He was the personal connection."

"Yes," Adrian shifted uncomfortably. "You're having him watched?"

"I was keeping an eye on you while you putting your plan in motion," Jason said unapologetically. "Making sure you didn't give the cops anything on me after they pulled your deal. I wanted to see how strong your resolve was."

"Right," That wasn't creepy at all. "Look, the Codys think they're more than they are."

"And what are they?" Jason asked curiously. "Besides thieves, ex-cons, and drug addicts."

"Only two of them are drug addicts, and Pope's the only one who has done any real time," Admittedly, they could all fit in the thief category. "They're not like you or this. They were isolated by their mother. She liked to think Oceanside was an empire she ruled, she convinced her sons that's how things were. The truth is, the only reason people did what she or her boys told them to do was because Smurf paid them to. It wasn't fear or respect, it was money."

"Money gives the illusion of power," Tommy pointed out. "It also can buy you a hired gun to take out your enemies. Sis told me the Codys have seen you as an enemy since the cops started asking you questions about them."

"I didn't give the cops shit on them," He was damn tired of people assuming he had or would. "All that crap about them wanting me dead...it's just Smurf's bullshit bleeding out on them. They will get over it. They'll realize it's not the right way to go about things."

"You don't have time for them to get a clue," Jason remarked, raising his voice an octave. "What part of _'they put a hit out on you' _don't you understand?"

"_'They'_ didn't," Adrian was sure of that. "Look, I have spent nearly my entire life with these people. I know how they operate. Smurf raised each of her boys to serve a specific purpose, so they didn’t have to outsource things. The oldest brother, Pope, he's the enforcer. If the family was trying to kill me, if that's a decision they made together, he would be the one coming after me."

"As you said, you've known them almost your whole life, so perhaps emotions got in the way," Jason turned his statement around on him. "He watched you grow up, maybe he decided he couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger."

"He murdered his own sister-in-law for the same reason they want me dead," Deran had been kind enough to share that tidbit with him when Adrian suggested a one-on-one with Pope to plead his case. "And he was in love with her. I doubt he'd hesitate with me just because we've known each other a long time."

"Well, if it wasn't a family decision...."

"It had to be the kid. He's running things now that Smurf's gone," Adrian could only imagine how well that was going, the big bad Cody brothers taking orders from a little boy. "Trujillos and I grew up in the same neighborhood. We got friends in common. Word around the block was that Smurf got involved with them while she was in prison, the kid acted as her proxy on the outside. If he didn't think his uncles were up for the job, he'd outsource it to someone without telling them. In this case, I guess that's the Trujillos."

"I've already instructed my men on the ground in Oceanside to reach out to the Trujillos, to deliver a warning," Jason revealed steps he had taken prior to bringing them up to speed. "If this kid is persistent, he could always hire someone else --"

"I doubt he knows anybody else," Smurf wasn't stupid enough to give up all her contacts to J. "Like I said, the Codys aren't worth worrying about. They're small fry. Rat terriers who think they're Rottweilers."

"I can't help but wonder if you're so insistent about this because you're trying to protect him," Jason tapped his finger over Deran's face on the photograph. "Do you think I would execute the entire family if I thought they were a threat?"

"I'm not worth four bodies to you," His life wasn't worth anyone else’s, no matter the circumstances. "There's no reason anyone has to die over this. It's nothing."

"And if they did?" Jason cocked his head to the side. "Would you accept that they had to die or would you push back?"

"None of them have to die over this."

"You're avoiding the question, so I'll ask you a different one. Actually, I'll ask you a question similar to one my former associate, Milan, asked your brother once," Jason leaned forward in his chair, placing his hands on the desk. "Why are you still loyal to those who are not loyal to you?"

"It's not about loyalty," _**Loyalty**_ was a hollow word where the Codys were concerned, Adrian knew that now. "It's..."

"Oh, so it's about love," Jason grimaced, disappointed. "And not just for the one you shared a bed with. You care for the whole family."

"Not the whole family," Adrian didn't give a flying fuck for the kid or mommy dearest. As for the brothers, well, there was a time when he thought of them as family. "Believe me, if it was something I could turn off..."

"Look, Jason, we appreciate you getting the Trujillos to stand down. Personally, I am grateful," Tommy said sincerely, a hand placed over his heart. "But the Codys, they're a personal problem. A family problem."

"I handled the Trujillos because I cannot put Adrian to work in Oceanside with a threat hanging over his head," Jason reasoned, irritation sinking into his tone. "If you are right about the Codys not being a true threat, then yes, they are a personal problem. And I have had enough of your personal problems disrupting my business, Tommy. I don't need little brother's too."

"You won't," Tommy promised. "We will handle this. It's not gonna touch the organization."

"For your sakes, it better fucking not.”

* * *

Deran's world was cemented in Oceanside. His brothers were there, his father now too, for whatever that was worth. He had the house and the bar, things easily replaceable, sure, but things he couldn't bring himself to part with them, not after how hard he worked to get them. He had employees, he had family, a new little nephew, people who were counting on him to be around. As much as he had wanted to follow Adrian out of the country, he couldn't leave his world behind.

It was different for Adrian, easier. Adrian didn't have roots. Other than picking up a few shifts at Real Surf when he was in town, he didn't have a real job anymore. He had friends, but none he was really close with besides Deran. The only things tying him to Oceanside were Deran and Jess, and they just weren't good enough, in Deran’s opinion.

Jess wouldn't follow Adrian to Indonesia, Deran was sure of that. She had too much in Oceanside. She had a home, a career, a daughter, a family. Uprooting her entire life would take more than a couple suitcases and a plane ticket. If she had really gone to meet Adrian, it couldn't have been somewhere far away.

The thing about the Dolans was they had lived in Oceanside long enough to be mistaken for locals, when really they were implants from New York. They had been moved to the West Coast after Adrian had nearly OD'd on their mom's coke when he was two years old. Nico Dolan, for the first and last time, had made a decision to protect his children, separating them from their mother by moving them across the country. The separation had lasted as long as it took Nico to realize taking care of two little kids on his own full time was going to put a crimp in his lifestyle.

As long as Deran had known them, Adrian and Jess had split their time between Oceanside and Queens. They went back a couple times a year as children, if their parents could afford it. Kate and Tommy traveled to Oceanside a few times too, usually in the summer when Adrian and Jess would rather surf the waves than be stuck in the city. Deran had never seen Adrian as happy as when his whole family gathered together on the beach.

The Dolan children had been torn in two different directions, Deran had seen that first hand. Oceanside was their home, no doubt, they both had an uncomplicated love of the sea, but their love for Kate and Tommy was uncomplicated to. Despite their substance abuse problems and all around issues, Kate and Tommy were the family Adrian and Jess needed in their lives. If New York had beaches and surf to rival SoCal’s, Deran was certain Jess and Adrian would have moved back east as soon as they were old enough.

New York was the key. In New York, Adrian would have everything he would need to lay low, his older brother would make sure of that. New York was a place Jess wouldn't hesitate to follow her little brother.

"They went home," Deran murmured to his walls of his empty house. "To their _**other**_ home."

It wasn't information he could just sit on. If he knew Adrian hadn't fled the country, chances are his brothers would soon enough, if they didn't already. He could only imagine what they would do if they found out that not only was Adrian still around, but that his deal had been put back on the table, and sweetened under shady circumstances.

"They'd kill him," First they'd torture him, Deran suspected, to find exactly what he had told the police to earn that cushy deal. "I have to get him out the country."

New York was a big place and it had been a long time since Deran had made a trip out there with Adrian. He knew where Tommy's loft was, of course, so he knew where he wouldn't be going if he wanted to survive the trip. There was Tasha and Jamie's place, but Deran remembered Adrian mentioning some drama there, and doubted Adrian would subject himself to someone else’s marital issues if he could help it. That left Kate, he supposed, who lived out on Long Island or Staten Island, some fucking island.

"The address is around here somewhere," Unless Jess had found it during her raid and taken it with her. "I'll find it. I'll find him."

He didn't have a choice. He had sent Adrian away to protect him; he wasn't going to let it be in vain. He would find him, warn him about his brothers _**again**_, and get him out of the country himself if he had to.

* * *

Tommy had learned pretty early on that there was a certain responsibility that came with being an older sibling, especially growing up in a single-parent home. It had been easy with Jess, their mom was still half-way functional and in the midst of a long stretch of sobriety at the time she was born. All Tommy had to do was change a few diapers and look after her from time to time when their mom had to run to the store or just needed a break. Things had shifted dramatically by the time Adrian had come into the world.

Three kids, two under the age of six, had proved more than Kate could handle without a little pick me up. Her cocaine use and the pills had grown so out of control that Tommy and Jess had to step up where she dropped the ball. Tommy had been a corner boy back then, using whatever he earned to buy diapers and formula, shoplifting food from the grocery store when he could swing it. The actual child rearing of Adrian had ultimately fallen to his baby sister.

Jess may have been thrust into the 'mom' role at an early age, but she took to it like a duck to water. She always seemed to know when Adrian needed a soft touch or a firm hand. Over twenty-five years later, not much had changed.

"You've been here a day and a half," Jess grumbled, smacking an icepack to Adrian's bruised cheek. "_**One day**_, Adrian. And you've already gotten your ass kicked."

“I’m gonna kill Ghost,” Tommy growled, pacing around the kitchen like a caged animal. “I’ll fucking kill him.”

“Why? I started it and I’m pretty sure he let me win,” Adrian mumbled, batting their sister’s hand away to hold of icepack up himself. “Plus, you heard what Jason said about that.”

"You could’ve done it. What, someone tells you they killed your brother-- that's me by the way, in case you forgot," Tommy kicked at his brother's legs. “And you don’t shoot him right off the bat?"

"Fuck, Tommy," Their mother swatted the back of his head. "He ain't you."

"What was I supposed to shoot him wit-- _**Oh**_," Adrian winced, stepping away from him. "The gun you gave me to carry."

"You don't have it on you, do you?"

"You gave him a gun?" Jess took her turn to smack him upside the head. "What is wrong with you? He's in enough trouble as it is without adding a gun charge to the mix."

"That's what I told him," Adrian muttered, dropping the icepack into the sink. "The gun is upstairs. I didn't think I'd need it."

"The way shit is now, it's too dangerous to go out unarmed," It wasn't as if Tommy had handed that gun to his brother on a whim. "I ain't even talking about my shit with Ghost. Those Cody fuckers put a hit out on you. You need to be able to defend yourselves."

“Those pansy ass mama’s boys hired some asshole to take you out?" Jess scoffed, eyes wide in disbelief. "You have got to be kidding me.”

"Don't worry about it," Adrian brushed off her concern. "I will handle it."

"We've let you handle it on your own through beatings and fuckin' possessive, controlling bullshit," Tommy had let things go on between his brother and that Cody kid for longer than he would have liked. "Letting you handle it has gotten you here."

"You're too close to it," Jess decided, sitting down at the kitchen table. "Even when you hate Deran, you go out of your way to protect him, and then he gives you a reason to regret it, every single time."

"He's got you stuck on stupid," Tommy had told Ghost the same thing about Angela once upon a time. "Sis and I can think clearly on this. We'll deal with it."

"You think my feelings for Deran cloud my judgment, well, I can say the same thing about you," Adrian countered. "Your hate for him, because of shit he's done to me, it clouds your judgment."

"He's got a point," Their mom chimed in. "They hired someone to take out Adrian. You guys should just hire someone to take them out."

"Not where I was going with that at all," Adrian scrubbed a hand down his face. “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you agreeing with me."

"You're not taking this seriously, Adrian," Jess sighed, raking her hands through her hair. "I don't care if you don't think they're a real threat. Hiring a hit man is a step way over the goddamn line. You can't just ignore that."

“The Codys are my business, my problem. I will sort them out. The two of you," Adrian motioned between his older siblings. "Just stay out of it.”

"That's not gonna happen, little brother," Tommy crossed his arms over his chest. "They threatened your life, we're not going to let that go."

"Yes, you will, because this is my life, not yours," Adrian pushed off the counter and made a beeline for the stairs. "Stay the fuck out of it."

"Hey, before you storm off, take this," Jess held her cellphone out to him. "Your public defender has been calling me all day, left tons of messages, said there was some kind of change with your deal, and he'd try to catch you again in the morning. So, you might want to keep that on you."

"Okay," Adrian nodded, taking the phone from her. "Thanks."

"Also, Carter sent me a video earlier, you should watch it," Jess suggested, a devilish smirk spread across her lips. "Seeing those douchebags secure their place as the laughing stocks of Oceanside should perk you right up."

"The last time I looked at something Carter sent you, I was scarred for life.”

"I said Carter sent it, not that it was of him," Jess chuckled before her expression suddenly grew serious. "It's the most recent video in our messages, so, uh, just don't scroll any higher than that video and you shouldn't see anything you don't want to."

"Gross," Adrian shuddered as he began his trek up the stairs.

"Who's Carter?" Their mom asked, twirling a strand of her hair around her finger. "New boyfriend?"

"Not new or my boyfriend. He's a friend I hook up with sometimes," Jess shrugged, sipping from a mug on the table. "And he's Charlie's father."

"A good one?" Tommy questioned, wondering if there was another ass he would have to kick in Oceanside. "He around and shit--"

"He's one of the good ones. He's amazing with Charlie," Jess grinned fondly. "He also hates the Codys, 'cause Deran's brother Craig crashed a car they were all in, paralyzed Carter's little brother, and fled the scene, leaving them to take the rap for the drug stash he left behind."

"Oh," Well, shit. "You think he'd help us with this Cody shit?"

"No," Jess said confidently. "He's pissed at the Codys, but they're the only way he can afford his brother's surgeries. They pay him to keep quiet."

"They got a lot of money, huh," That was useful information, not that Tommy didn't already know it, they were thieves after all. "How much you think these Cody fucks are worth?"

"Not quite as much as they think they are with the way they spend money," Jess noted, pursing her lips. "Why?"

"Think Jason might be onto something with this getting paid not to retaliate shit," Tommy was going to need another way to generate income if he was going to be paying Jason for protection on top of everything else. "Ghost tried to kill me last night--"

"Jamie did what?" Their mother blanched. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, Ma, I'm sure. He unloaded a couple hundred rounds into the Mustang," What other reason could someone possibly have for doing something like that? "He tried to kill me, now he's paying Jason $100,000 every two weeks to stay alive."

"The Codys ordering a hit on Adrian is as good as an attempt on his life, but you and I both know Adrian won't let you hurt them," Jess frowned. "He'd talk you out of it, just like he did after the beating and when Deran had trapped him after that Dave stuff. No matter how angry you get, Adrian has always managed to talk you down."

"Yeah, but they don't know that," Tommy's siblings were his kryptonite for sure, in plenty of different ways, but that was a weakness he'd been able to keep under wraps. "So we might as well make some money off their asses."

“You roll up on them, tell them to pay up or die, they're not going to take you seriously, because they've never dealt with someone like you, that was Mommy's job," Jess remarked derisively. "Adrian's not stupid, he hasn't told them about you beyond that you're our brother. They don't know what you do here or the kind of people you work for. They don't know that you're dangerous. They're more likely to laugh in your face and pick a fight with you, try to kill you, than they are to actually pay up."

"That just means I'll have to show them who I am, what I'm capable of."

* * *

It wasn't exactly early when Craig was called to Smurf's house for a meeting, but with a newborn at home, time was a relative concept. He and Renn slept when the baby slept, which was not as restful as they thought it would be. He was in the middle a powernap while Renn nursed when he'd been yanked out of bed and across town for some dumb meeting.

"What's this about, man?" Craig asked through a yawn. "Why isn't Deran here?"

"I called him, he didn't answer," J muttered, seated at one end of the patio table. "A friend of Smurf's came by the bowling alley this morning."

"Who?" Pope questioned, looking just as annoyed as Craig felt to be there. "What did they want?"

"A cop friend," J was careful not to offer names or specifics of any kind, wanting to keep that contact for himself. "Smurf asked him to get in touch if he heard anything more about the person who was giving information to the cops about us."

"And?" Normally, Craig wouldn't be so impatient, but he was anxious to get home and be with his son. "What did he say?"

"Confirmed what Smurf told me, it's Adrian, Deran's boyfriend," J eyed them both suspiciously, a realization dawning on him. "You knew."

"The cops questioned Adrian about us, Adrian didn't give them anything," Pope said impassively. "Deran and I had this conversation already."

"Me too." Craig raised his hand. "He wouldn’t have lied to use about it."

"You didn't think I needed to know?" J glared at them, betrayal etched over his young face. "It affects all of us, not just Deran or the two of you."

"We figured Smurf would've filled you in when I refused to buy into her lie that Adrian was selling us out to save his own skin," Pope shrugged, sipping from his coffee. "Guess I was right."

"He did sell us out," J claimed, hands twitching over the armrest of his chair. "He's not going to prison."

"That's because Deran got him out of the country, dipshit," Craig snickered, shaking his head. "Where the hell you been?"

"Then why did the DEA suddenly decide to give him full immunity on all charges?" J countered. "If he hasn't given them anything, why would they do that?"

"Adrian knows a lot about us, no one’s saying he doesn’t. He's spent a lot of time around our family, seen and heard a lot of shit," Craig remembered him being almost chameleon-like as a small child, always blending into the background, not noticeable unless you were looking for him. There was no telling what he witnessed or overheard while hidden in the shadows. "But he can't prove anything. He can say whatever he wants, he has no proof to back it up."

"You don't know that," J sneered, his usual mask of calm and composed slipping. "He could've been gathering evidence the whole time he's been living with Deran."

"That might be something your girlfriends would do, but not Adrian," Craig didn't think Adrian had it in him to be that two-faced or cruel. "He's not like that."

"How would you know?"

"Hey!" Pete Trujillo's voice broke into their conversation as he stalked through the back gate. "You think this is a goddamn game, kid?"

"What?" J tensed, sitting a little taller in his seat. "What are you doing at my house?"

"You should have told me the guy you sent me after was associated with the Serbian mafia," Pete snapped, taking a wad of cash from his jacket and tossing it in J's face. "Keep your money. My crew isn't getting involved in whatever beef you got with the Serbs."

"You're mistaken," J asserted, setting the money in a neat stack on the patio table. "The guy I wanted you to deal with is just some surfer who spent time with my uncle. He has sensitive information on our family. He's not a member of the mafia--"

"Just a surfer my ass," Pete spit at him. "A couple Serbs set my garage on fire last night. Two of my guys were still inside. They said I had slighted their organization by accepting the job at all. Told me exactly what would happen if I went through it with the hit, it involved my crew being served up in pieces on dinner plates."

"You believed them?" J raised his brows. "Just like that?"

"You ever dealt with the mafia before?" Pete asked, towering over him. "Have you ever dealt with anyone outside my crew or Grandma Smurf?"

"No, he hasn't," Pope responded before J had a chance. "He's only been in this world two years."

"Well, since you've been in this life all of five minutes, let me give you some advice on how to survive," Pete leaned in close, making sure J heard every word. "Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Know when to back off and say no.”

"You're scared," J commented, bemused by the fact. "How much is it going to take--"

"My crew is not taking any more jobs from you or your family. You're all one misstep away from a starting a war you don't have the know-how or manpower to fight," Pete retorted, turning on his heels and heading out the way he came. "Dead within a year without mommy to wipe your asses, I guarantee it."

"J," Pope slammed a palm down on the table, rattling the glass top. "What the fuck did you do?"

"What you wouldn’t."

* * *

The only recollection Jess had of Angela Valdes from her childhood was a faint memory of her hanging off Jamie's arm at one time or another. Beyond that, there was nothing, not there should be anything, Jess didn't make it a point to associate with Tommy's friends when she was kid. Although, she knew enough to know Tommy and Angela had never cared for each other, which didn't really explain why they had attended Angela's funeral.

Tommy had dragged her along at Adrian's insistence. Their younger brother had pulled her aside before they left the house and instructed her to keep Tommy close, not to let him start anything, and to get him out of there if anyone started anything with him. She didn't know what he meant until they were standing in the cemetery and she spotted Jamie and Tasha in attendance as well.

Jamie had zeroed in on Tommy almost immediately, pinning him with a look of complete and utter disbelief, which was to be expected, given that he thought he had killed Tommy. Still, Jess was pretty sure she was missing some key details on the situation. It was for that reason that she took Adrian's advice and got Tommy out of there before the service was even complete.

"I'm guessing no one told Jamie you were alive," She mentioned once they were safely tucked away in the car. "He looked very surprised."

"Motherfucker should be," Tommy laughed, drumming his hands over the steering wheel. "You haven't said anything about my new ride."

"It's ugly as sin. Teal with pink racing stripes, that's just wrong on a car like this," If he planned to keep it, she hoped he would at least update the paint job. "And what's with your outfit? You're a drug dealer, not a mafia boss."

“Hey, Keisha picked this out," Tommy tutted proudly, maneuvering the car out of the cemetery. "So I know I look damn good.”

“You look like a derpy penguin,” Jess snorted, wondering if Keisha had handed it to him straight out of the closet without seeing what it actually looked like on him. "How are things going with Keisha, anyway? You guys have been pretty steady for a while."

"It's good, you know. It's better than good," Tommy smiled. "Keisha, man, she ride or die, you know?"

"Ride or die?" That was dumbest expression she'd ever heard. "You've seen the Fast & Furious movies too many times."

"Fuck you. You know what I mean," Tommy huffed. "She wants to learn my world, be a part of it."

"You really think that's a good idea?"

"What, you think she can't handle it?"

"It's not about if she can, it's if she should," Jess didn't know Keisha well enough to know if she could handle who Tommy really was. "Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should."

"She wants to help me out, clean my money and all that," Tommy remarked, seeming pleased with that development. "It’s kind of bringing us closer together."

"That's good, I guess?"

"The only problem we're really having is with Tasha," Tommy sighed, his jaw set. "She and Tasha used to be tight, you remember?"

"Yeah," The pair had been best friends for a long time. "She went south after Raina died, right?"

"Tasha tell you?"

"We talked about it."

"Keisha's done with Tasha. She wants me to be done with Tasha too, doesn't want me to see her or call her no more," Tommy tilted his head to the side like a confused puppy. "But, Tasha, man, she's like you to me, you know? She's my sister. She's family. ‘Riq and Yaz, they are my family. I can't just...I can't just let 'em go."

"LaKeisha doesn’t get to dictate who you can or cannot see just because you guys are together. She sure as hell can't order you to stop seeing your family," Jess hadn't taken Keisha for the possessive type, but perhaps she had read her the wrong way. "You wouldn't ask Keisha to give up her family would you?"

"Hell no."

"You need to sit Keisha down and explain who Tasha is to you, why you won't turn your back on her or the kids," The explanation was key, it couldn't be glossed over. "Really talk to her, Tommy. Don't just tell her how it's going to be, that'll get you nowhere. Have an honest and open conversation with her."

"Maybe you should have that conversation with her."

"Well, shit, I already set one bitch straight this week, I'll go two-for-two," She was more than up for the challenge. "Not that Keisha's a bitch. Sorry. Poor word choice. It's Deran that was the bitch."

"Chill, sis, it ain't nothin'," Tommy waved off the apology. "So what's this shit with you and your baby daddy? The friend you hook up with sometimes? That fuck buddy shit is what Ma had with your and Adrian's old man, you know."

"Please, don't compare me and Carter to Kate and Nico," Jess refused to believe their relationships were anything alike. "Carter and I care about each other, we just don't have the time to turn our friendship into anything more."

"You had time to have a baby together."

"I don't mean, like, physical time," Finding time in their schedules to slip away and have sex was the easy part in comparison. "Emotionally, neither of us is ever going to have time to focus on each other. We have Charlie and our brothers and work, and that's all exhausting enough without adding anything to it."

"Look, uh," Tommy scratched his head. "What if, um, what if Adrian stayed out here with me for awhile? It gives you a break, takes one of those things off your plate. Gives you a chance to explore shit with Carter."

"Adrian is not the only brother I have to worry about, you know," She spent just as much time fretting over her eldest brother as she did the youngest. "It's hard not to worry about you with how things are here. You are never safe, not really. I see Mom's name flash on my cellphone at an odd hour and my heart stops in my chest because I think it's that call, you know, the one telling me...."

"Hey, I'm not going anywhere," Tommy assured her with as much conviction as he could muster. "Neither is Adrian. We're not going to leave you alone to take care of Ma and Charlie, I promise. You're always going to have one of us."

"I love you and A so fucking much, I just..." She didn't know how much more of their chosen lifestyles she could take. "If you guys could just stop getting in to trouble or putting your lives in danger, that'd be great."

"One of us can work on at least half of that. Personally, I vote Adrian.”

“Of course you do.”

* * *

Deran had always been Craig's responsibility growing up, Smurf made sure of that. She had set up a makeshift nursery in Craig's room right after Deran was born, despite the fact that there was a fully furnished one just down the hall they had prepared for the kid. Craig took on their new brother with little complaint, just happy that he was no longer the youngest.

As they got older, and Craig's drug problem worsened, their roles had reversed. Deran began to follow Craig to parties to keep an eye on him, make sure he always got home safe, and didn't choke on his own vomit in his sleep. Of course, that was before Deran had really started partying himself, but even then he didn't go at it as hard as Craig, Pope suspected that was because he thought he always had to keep one eye out.

Pope used to think Smurf had tasked him to care for Julia, but the truth was, neither he nor Julia were capable of taking care of anyone, let alone each other, that's where Baz came in. Baz could wrangle Pope and Julia just as well as he could set them off. It helped that Baz had a way with Craig and Deran too; it made him a sort of go-between, a peacekeeper for them all.

Since they lost Baz, Pope had been making more of an effort with his brothers. He tried to be there for them in a way he never could when they were kids, in a way Smurf never would have let him. Sometimes that meant second-guessing their mother when she claimed one of their significant others was a rat, and other times it meant scouring all of Oceanside for them.

"I went by the bar, the buildings Smurf's gave him, Billy’s motel, Real Surf, Adrian's sister's place, and Adrian dad's place-- he was real happy to see me. I talked to all of his friends that I knew. No one knows anything," Pope sighed, feeling beads of sweat roll down his forehead. "You heard from him?"

"Nope," Craig sighed, leaning over the porch railing. "His phone goes straight to voicemail."

"Yeah," Pope had tried calling multiple times throughout the day to no avail. "You buy this shit about Adrian?"

"Which shit?" Craig asked, combing his facial hair with his fingernails. "That he's ratting on us or working for the Serbian mafia?"

"Either."

"No. I mean, when Deran told me he needed to get Adrian out of town, told me why, I had my doubts, but the longer I thought on it... I don't think Adrian would turn on us like that. If he did, he wouldn't be sharing Deran's bed while he did it. That's just..." Craig trailed off, staring out to the distance. "The morning after he saw Adrian off, I asked Deran if he thought Adrian could turn on us now, since they left things so bad, you know. He was sure Adrian wouldn't."

"Adrian got a temper. I remember that from when he was a teenager. He was really angry kid, but he was never the revenge type. Deran was always the one looking to pay someone back for something they'd done, Adrian was always the one who was willing to let it go," Pope wouldn't go as far as to say Adrian was the forgive and forget type, but he was more likely to make peace over war. "The mafia thing, though, it just seems way out of his league."

"Pete didn't say Adrian was a member, just that he was connected to the organization," Craig pointed out. "We don't know much about his life in New York, Deran knows a bit, but neither of them has ever said much about it. Who knows, maybe his mom's family is a big crime syndicate or something."

"They're willing to kill to protect him,” That said a lot about how locked in Adrian was with the organization. “And J might have put us in their crosshairs by ordering that hit."

"It definitely put the Trujillos in the crosshairs," Craig commented, picking at the peeling paint on the wood railing. "What's the stop J from hiring someone else to kill Adrian?"

"Nothing," That was their biggest problem, not being able to rein in their nephew. "He succeeds, someone takes Adrian out..."

“It would cripple Deran," Craig hunched his shoulders. "And there's no way Deran would ever believe we didn’t have a hand in it."

"It's also going to bring the Serbians right to our doorstep," There was no telling what they would do to them. "We need to get ahead of this. We need to J to stand down--"

"Good luck with that."

"I guess it wouldn’t hurt to find out how deep Adrian's in with Serbs," The more information they had the better. "If it's a family connection or business or what."

"Frankie's been hanging around J. Doing favors for him to earn his trust or something so he’ll get us to do jobs for her," Craig divulged, pushing his long locks out of his face. "Maybe we can get her to look into these guys for us. She knows a lot of people in a lot of places. I mean, we can’t come up with a plan on how to deal with these fuckers if we don’t know who they are, right?”

"She already fucked us over once, Craig," They could not afford another mistake. "You really want to take another risk with her?"

"I don't think we have a choice."

"Fine. Get in touch," With any luck that decision wouldn't backfire spectacularly. "We even have to wonder where Deran is?"

"Come on, man," Craig smirked. "He's wherever Adrian is."

* * *

The last thing Deran wanted to do while he was in New York was cross paths with Tommy or have his ass verbally handed to him by Jess again. If he couldn't find Adrian on his own, Kate Egan was his preferred point of contact, but she wasn’t his biggest fan either. He had a feeling none of them would cough up Adrian's location for him, even if he asked nicely and promised to be on his best behavior, but he didn’t let that deter him.

He had the cabby drop him down the block and slinked up the street, cautious of his surroundings. He was half-expecting Tommy to pop out at any second coldcock him as soon as he got close enough, but all he found when he reached the house was a Plymouth parked on the curb, a van in the driveway, and….

“Adrian.”

He was standing in front of the open garage door, wearing that blue-hooded tank top that Deran swiped from him every chance he got. His face was discolored, bruised, and battered, reminding Deran of another time, another place. He had a cigarette dangling from his split lip, and one hand holding something to his back, nursing a different injury, Deran supposed.

"Well, that didn't take long, did it?" Adrian drawled, locking eyes with him. "You shouldn't be here."

"Could say the same to you," Deran shot back, making his way up the drive. "What are you doing here, man?"

Adrian ignored the question, flicking his cigarette onto the asphalt and returning to the garage. Deran followed him in, watching him toss the icepack he'd been holding to his back onto a workbench.

"You know, I've got enough to deal with today," Adrian grumbled, moving around dusty paint cans on a shelf. "The least of all being the hit your family put out on me. I don't need whatever this is--"

"What?" Deran stilled, his entire body going rigid. "What hit?"

"The fact that you know nothing is actually the least surprising thing about it," Adrian clucked, shaking his head. "Unless you’re playing dumb for my benefit."

"I-I didn't know anything about that, about a hit," Deran would never have gone along with something like that. "Is that why you're beat up?"

"No, Deran, you're family's reach doesn't extend this far," Adrian waved his hand toward the New York City skyline visible through the retracted garage door. "The Cody name doesn't mean anything outside Oceanside. It barely means anything in Oceanside with Smurf gone. She was what made you dangerous, her money, her connections. Without her, you're just a couple rich assholes playing thug."

"Don’t hold back, A. Tell me how you really feel."

"You think the shit with Angela's brother helped your reputation?" Adrian scoffed at his naivety. "All it did was show everyone that you can't make a move without a piece of pussy giving you directions."

"How do you even know about that shit with Angela's brother?" Deran agreed that it wasn't his family's best work, but he wasn't going to admit that to anyone. "You were already here when that went down."

"The cellphone video is making the rounds. Someone sent it to Jess, Jess showed it to me, but I turned it off pretty quickly," Adrian admitted, sitting on the edge of the workbench. "Hearing Angela proudly announce she was with the Codys like it made her untouchable was just sad. More so when I know the biggest threat that comes with being with the Codys _**is**_ the Codys."

"What the fuck is your problem?" Deran growled, nostrils flaring. "Look, I know I hurt you, but you don't have to act like...like..."

"Like what, Deran? Hmm? How should I be? Tell me," Adrian spread his arms wide, opening the floor to him. "What does baby Deran want? You want me to tear up, look scared and helpless? You want me to be quiet and passive? Those are the only two options I have with you, 'cause you don't respond well to honesty. So which do you want, Deran? Scared and helpless or quiet and passive?"

"Neither," He did have a preference, sort of, but he had a strong feeling he'd get decked if chose either one. "I don't..."

"What are you doing here, Deran?"

"I asked you first," Of the two of them, Deran was not the one furthest away from where he should have been. "You were supposed to leave the country."

"It wasn't worth it," Adrian decided, slipping his hands into his pockets. "Becoming a fugitive, giving up my entire life, all because of your family, it just didn't sit right with me."

"Yeah, well, you don't have to worry about the fugitive thing anymore," If the cops were to be believed, anyway. "Pearce came by the bar yesterday, said you've got full immunity."

"I heard the same from my lawyer this morning."

"What did you do?"

"What did I do?" Adrian raised a brow. "Or what did I _**say**_?"

"I'm not trying to accuse you--"

"Sure you are."

"I don't think you gave the cops anything on my family," If he had, Deran would already be in holding cell. "But Livengood had to put your deal back on the table for a reason. I don't think he just changed his mind out of the goodness of his heart."

"Let's just say Livengood was made an offer that he accepted," Adrian’s lips twisted in an ugly smirk. "Funny how money has a way of making someone rethink their decisions."

"You don't have that kind of money," Deran had watched him struggle to get by for years, there was no way he could afford to bribe a cop. "But you brother does. He paid Livengood off? Why the fuck didn't you just go to him to begin with?"

"I didn't want to involve him--"

"You involved me."

"No. No, I told you what was going on because the cops started asking about you, when Pearce got in the way of things," Adrian reminded him that the detective was the only reason he had made Deran aware of his troubles at all. "You took over from there. You decided how things were going to be and what we were going to do. You didn't give me a choice in anything."

"You had resigned yourself to going to jail," Fuck, Deran was just trying to give him an alternative. "I was supposed to let that happen?"

"You were supposed to let me handle it," Adrian retorted hotly. "I know that you were just trying to help, but you should have just let me handle it."

"'Cause you were doing such a great job," Deran snarked, rolling his eyes. "You know, Pearce knows you're not in Oceanside. He finds a way to prove it and your immunity deal’s going to be fucked."

"My lawyer’s taking care of it," Adrian didn't appear concerned or bothered by whatever threats Pearce had tried to lob at Deran. "I had a family emergency that needed my attention here."

"The kind of emergency that busts up your face?"

"Yeah, that kind," Adrian replied, stubbornly refusing to clarify. "Is that all?"

"What?"

"Is that all you wanted?" Adrian asked expectantly. "Like I said, I've got stuff to do today."

"I'm sorry, okay?" There was nothing he could do or say to make things right, all he could do was apologize. "I'm sorry I hurt you when I chose to stay with my family."

"I'm sorry too," Adrian said, sounding almost genuine. "I'm sorry for believing loyalty was a concept you and your family understood when I chose to protect you over myself."

"Adrian, come on." That wasn't fair at all. "That's not true."

"The day I did that, the day I told Pearce to go ahead and charge me because I wouldn't give you or your brothers up, he asked me if you would do the same for me, if you would give up your entire life for me," Adrian's voice cracked around his words. "Guess I know the answer to that now, huh?"

"No," Deran shook his head vigorously, feeling tears well in his eyes. "No, I-I..."

"You chose, and that's fine. I get it. I have a family, I can respect your decision," Adrian drew in a long breath, steadying himself. "But you didn't have to choose, Deran. You could've come with me and come back to visit your family whenever wanted. You wouldn't have been the one cut off from everything and everyone you ever knew."

"I wasn't-- Pope and Craig had just..." They had gotten into his head, made him doubt his decision to go. "If I had left with you, I didn't think I could ever come back, and I couldn't... I couldn't leave them."

"Now you never have to, you've got no reason to leave," Adrian said bitterly. "And no reason to stay here. You should go."

"There are still things we need to talk about," Deran couldn't just leave things the way they were. "Can't we go somewhere? I can get a hotel room--"

"If you're booking a room, you have no intention of _**talking**_. This isn't something a hard fuck is going to fix, Deran," Adrian seethed, gritting his teeth. "Go home, Deran. It's not safe for you here."

"I don't want to," He wouldn’t leave until they really hashed shit out and things were, at the very least, amicable between them. "I'm staying."

"Fine," Adrian snagged a set of keys off the workbench and limped out of the garage. "You stay. I'll go."

"Why did you sell Real Surf?" It was a ridiculous question for Deran to ask in the grand scheme of things, but if it kept Adrian in his line of sight for a moment longer, it was worth it. "I thought it was to get money for school, but then your sister implied you did it for me."

"I didn't do it _**for**_ you," Adrian steps faltered. "I did it _**because**_ of you…and me."

"What does that mean?" Deran asked, trailing after him to the driveway. "How could it possibly have been because of me?"

"I used the money to help pay Dave's hospital bills," Adrian confessed, tossing Deran a look of contempt over his shoulder. "You remember Dave, right? You had your brother toss him off a boat."

"I remember," It wasn't something he was proud of, but he hadn't lost any sleep over it. "Why would you pay his bills? It wasn’t your fault."

"He was hurt because of me. You hurt him because he was with me," Adrian pressed a hand to his chest. "Paying his bills was the least I could do, seeing as I'm the one who put him in danger."

"That's not--"

"Go home, Deran," Adrian said again as he continued down the driveway to the sidewalk. "You've got your answers. Your family is safe. Now just...go."

He was left to watch Adrian walk away, again, and this time by his own choice. He wanted to go after him, to make him talk, or more likely fight some more, but a firm hand latched onto the scruff of his neck stopped him in his tracks.

"Deran Cody."

"Oh, fuck," Deran whispered under this breath, clenching his eyes shut as a tremor ran through his body. "Tommy."

"Let's you and I go have a talk," Tommy used his grip on Deran's neck to urge him forward, toward the Plymouth parked at the curb. "What do you say?"

"Yeah. Okay, Tommy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next: Deran's visit forces Adrian's hand and costs Tommy with his crew.


	3. Only Remnants of You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd.  
Chapter title comes from: [Guilty by Rag'n'Bone Man](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgKSUQDwEqc)  
Gif sets: [Grown Man](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/187856712711/animal-kingdom-power-fic-scene-grown-ass), [Like You](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/187899649121/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-like-you-would-it-make), [Trust](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/187749843326/animal-kingdom-power-fic-scene-trust), [Alicia Jimenez](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/187931428681/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-alicia-jimenez-she-gonna), and a variation of [Close](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/187324997331/animal-kingdom-au-scene-close-you-know-why-smurf)
> 
> Set during Power 6x03 Forgot About Dre

Tommy had a bit of a hair-trigger, had a reputation for going off at the slightest provocation. However, he knew how to take his time, could draw out a beating for hours if necessary. By the time he was through, he would have a son of a bitch begging for a quick death.

"If you're going to kill me, man, just do it," Deran heaved, blood seeping from split skin of his face. "What the hell are you waiting for?"

"We haven't finished our conversation yet," Tommy had a few questions that his brother's boyfriend hadn't yet felt compelled to answer. "You should just be grateful I haven't pulled out the gas can."

"For someone who wants a conversation, we haven't done much talking," Deran staggered, struggling to stay on his feet. "If this is about what my brother's are going to do --"

"You are a grown ass man," Tommy judged by legal age not maturity level. "How much of a bitch you gotta be that you still need your big brothers to back you?"

"Isn't that what you're doing for Adrian, backing him?" Deran countered. "He's a grown man too. We're the same age."

"Nah. Adrian told me and Jess to leave you alone," Tommy had made the executive decision to ignore those particular instructions. "He said he would deal with his Cody problem himself. That's what a man does, you know. He handles his own shit."

"I handle my own shit," Deran claimed, spitting a wad of blood onto the cement floor. "I never asked my brother's for help."

"You asked your nephew to help you give Adrian a beat down so Mommy wouldn't find out you were a sorry excuse for a cocksucker," Tommy had been holding in a lot anger regarding that incident for two years, it was itching to be let loose. "Shit, I mean, the gaps in bathroom stall doors are wide, but they ain't _**that wide**_. You could've let him think you were in there with a chick. A butch chick. Instead, you choose to start beating the fuck out of my brother and then to get your idiot nephew in on it?"

"I-I made a mistake," Deran shuddered, gaze wandering, looking anywhere but at Tommy. "I apologized. Adrian got over it."

"Adrian got over you. Started seeing someone else. Dean or Derek or something with a D," Tommy wasn't real good with keeping track of his brother's boyfriends. "You didn't like that, did you? You want me to believe one of your brothers just dumped the poor bastard off a boat a couple miles out to sea out of their own volition? You had nothing to do with it?"

"What the fuck do you care what I did to some asshole whose name you don't even remember?"

"You fucking used that to get my brother back on your dick," Tommy was sure that made anything that happened between Adrian and Deran in that time dubious as hell. "If he didn't let you back inside, the same thing was gonna happen to him, huh?"

"That might've been what he thought, but I never said that," Deran denied the accusation, refused to take any responsibility. "I know what my brothers are capable of. I wouldn't sic them on Adrian."

"Maybe not, but you like to let Adrian think your brothers will come after him if he doesn't do what you want him to do. He'll get tossed off a boat if he don't open the door for you when you come knocking. They'll have him shanked if he doesn't leave the country like you told him to," The pattern of behavior was clear as fucking day. "You can't threaten him yourself after that beating you put on him, so you use your brothers to get him in line."

"That is bullshit," Deran sneered, nostrils flaring. "Nothing I have ever said or done was to control him. Ask him yourself. He'll tell you."

"One thing I don't understand is my brother letting you get away with this shit," Tommy and Ghost had both put in the time with Adrian when he was a kid to teach him how to fight, to stand on his own when they weren't there to have his back. "Jess has a theory about why he's never laid you the fuck out. She thinks if Adrian hit you, he wouldn't stop until you were dead."

"She's wrong. He's afraid to be like this dad," Deran declared, bracing himself on a table to keep himself more or less upright. "It's funny you're trying to be his protector now when you were nowhere to be found when Nico was knocking him and Jess around."

"I did the best I could," If they hadn't lived all the way across the country, maybe he could've done better. "As soon as I had the money to get them out, I did. I gave Jess money so she could go away to college when she graduated. I bought that Wagon for Adrian so he didn't have to stay in that house--"

"He was fourteen and you made him live out of car."

"That was his choice," Tommy had tried to get him into an apartment, had even tried to move him back to New York, the kid wouldn't have any of it. "And you know what, the last time he was really happy was those years he lived out of that goddamn Wagon on the beach."

"More bullshit," Deran scowled. "You only see him a couple weeks out of the year. You don't know when he's happy, what makes him happy."

"We're getting off topic," It's not like they were on a schedule or anything, but Tommy didn't know how long he had before Adrian figured out he'd nabbed his boy. "Let's get back to you and your brothers. You all put out a hit on my brother because the cops questioned him about your family."

"I had nothing to do with that. I tried to protect him. That's why I'm here!" Deran snarled, pounding his fist onto the table. "I thought I could warn him to go before they realized he never left, but if they put out a hit, that means they already know. They'll keep coming after him until he's dead."

"Will they? See, I'm not so sure, 'cause Adrian, man, when he heard about the hit, he was pretty certain that your brothers had nothing to do with it," The wheels in Tommy's head had started to turn when his brother had pointed the finger in a different direction than the Cody _**brothers**_. "Which made me wonder if your brothers ever actually told you they were going to kill him or if that’s just something you’ve cooked up in your head?"

“I think I liked it better when you weren’t talking.”

“All right,” Tommy cracked his knuckles. “Back to our previous conversation then.”

* * *

Smurf's death was supposed to be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, only the gold was supposed to be freedom. Without their mother to control every aspect of their lives, Pope and his brothers had always assumed they would finally be able to live their lives the way they wanted to, without fear of judgment or retribution. They thought, falsely it seemed, that they would no longer have to hide who they were or what they did from their family or in their own homes.

J's need to live up to Smurf shit on every idea of freedom they hoped to have. His choice to go outside the family to handle manufactured problems put them all in danger. His presence forced Pope and Craig to sneak around, meeting in secret at Deran's bar in the early hours of the morning.

"How's Nick?" Pope asked, pouring himself a cup of coffee. "Renn okay with you leaving this early?"

"Yeah, she's getting the hang of things," Craig smiled softly. "Nick's good, man. You really should spend some time with him."

"Maybe when things settle down," The idea of getting close to another child after losing Lena was just too hard for him. "You doing okay with it? The dad stuff?"

"Yeah. I mean, I think so. It's not like it's my first time," Craig chuckled. "I pretty much raised Deran. He turned out okay."

"You did good," Their little brother had his issues, but he could have turned out much worse if Smurf had been the only guiding force in his life. "You laying off the coke? I know you wanted to."

"I'm trying, but it's harder than I thought it'd be," Craig sighed, rubbing his hands together. "And I don't... I don't want to be like Julia. I don't want the drugs to be more important than my kid. I don't want Nick to turn out like J."

"We're not going to let that happen," Pope promised him. "Julia didn't have us to help her. Smurf made sure of that. She lied to us about Julia to keep us from helping her or bringing her home. We bought it every time. If we had-- If _**I**_ had been there for Julia the way she needed me to be, maybe she would have gotten better. And you're not as far gone as she was, Craig."

"I just want to be a good dad, Pope. I don't know how to do that. I don't know how to do any of this," Craig said disparagingly. "That's why I begged Deran to stay here instead of going with Adrian. I need his help, I need your help."

"You got me, all right?" Pope set the cup of coffee in front of his brother. "I don't know about Deran, though. We're not going to know where his head’s at until this shit with Adrian is settled."

"Settled? How do we settle it?" Craig quirked a brow. "Do we give him a pass? Do we banish him? Kill him? How far are we going to take this?"

"We're both on the same page about what he did or didn't do, right?" The kid had ratted on Jack's crew to save his own ass, a shitty thing to do, but it had nothing to do with them. "The cops pulled his deal because he wouldn't give us up. He kept his mouth shut about _**us**_."

"To Smurf that didn't matter, but to her anyone close to us became a threat if the cops so much as spoke to them," Craig furrowed his brows. "It's J's play in all this that I don't get. He's pushing this rat thing awfully hard. I mean, I know he wants to, like, be Smurf or whatever, but..."

"You're right, he's pushing it," Hiring the Pete Trujillo was proof of that. "The question is why. He has no reason to want Adrian out of the picture, unless he's got a grudge against him or he's trying to cover something up."

"You think Adrian has something on him?"

"I doubt it," To the best of Pope's knowledge, the only interaction Adrian and J had was at family dinner. "What if Adrian's just an easy sacrifice?"

"What do you mean?"

"The jobs we've been doing these last few months with J. That bank job. He made a phone call to the manager, then waited in the truck in an orchard miles away while we got chased by the goddamn cops," His oldest nephew had been careful to keep himself out of the line of fire, out of danger of injury or arrest. "That music festival thing. He brought it to us, set it up, but he didn't pull it with us. He was inside, surrounded by witnesses, while we took all the risk. When that truck slammed into us, he was safe and sound."

"It's suspicious as hell, yeah," Craig agreed with a nod. "But what are you trying to say? You think he's trying to set us up? He doesn't have to avoid pulling the actual jobs with us for that. The cops could give him immunity to flip on us."

"Like the cops gave Adrian immunity to flip on Jack and his crew?" That worked out so fucking well for him. "They'd find a way to screw J, to pin something on him. The only way to guarantee he doesn't go to jail with us, is for him to have plausible deniability. The cops can't put him with us if he's got a dozen witnesses saying he's somewhere else."

"Shit," Craig exhaled. "Wouldn't the cop that told Smurf Adrian was a rat tell her if J was ratting too?"

"If J is ratting, the cop probably did tell Smurf," Pope wasn't a 100% sure J was ratting, it would certainly explain a few things, but if he wasn't, he was still playing them somehow. "You think she would tell us if he was? She chose him to be her protégé _**after**_ he ratted on us the first time."

"She'd never admit she was that wrong, even if it put us all at risk," Craig muttered, sipping his coffee. "So if he is ratting, you think he's trying to throw Adrian under the bus so we stop worrying about a rat, to throw suspicion off himself or whatever.”

"It's possible, Craig. We don't anything for sure, that's the problem. We don't know that J's talking to the cops and we don't really know that Adrian didn't give them anything to get his deal put back on the table," Pope trusted Adrian slightly more than he did J, if only because he had known Adrian a hell of a lot longer. "What we do know is that hiring someone to kill Adrian when we don't even have confirmation that he did anything is how Smurf would do things. It is not how we are going to do things anymore. We've lost...we've lost too much because of Smurf's bullshit rules as it is."

"You got any ideas on how we're supposed to call J off this Adrian shit?"

"First, we need to figure out why Adrian's deal was put back on the table," Once they had that information, they could potentially use it to get J off Adrian's scent. "That doesn't work, we can always tell him another cop on Smurf's payroll got in touch, is ready to give us the name of the real rat."

"Don't get pissed for suggesting this, but," Craig cleared his throat. "What if we let the Serbians know that J's working alone? Let them handle him how they see fit."

"We might not have a choice in that," The problem was, whether they liked it or not, J was still Julia's son, and that had to mean something. "If they try to retaliate against our family, we will do what we have to do. We'll try to work something out, but if we can't..."

"J pays for his sins."

* * *

Deran couldn't be sure how long Adrian's brother had him locked up in the warehouse, it felt like days, but more likely it was only a few hours. He wasn't sure what the end game was when Tommy was alternating between knocking him around and reminding him of all the awful shit he had done to Adrian over the years. Deran's only reprieve came when Tommy checked the time on his watch and announced he had to go pick up his girl, leaving Deran at the mercy of his crew that had filed in throughout the morning.

For the most part, Tommy's guys, BG, 2-Bit, and Spanky, as they called themselves, seemed content to leave him tied up a chair in the corner. They cast a few glances his way while they went about their business, but otherwise ignored him. Deran was nothing more than a piece of furniture dripping blood on the floor to the pill-pushing douchebags.

"Yo, Bit, BG!" Spanky exclaimed suddenly, peering through his glasses out the service entrance of the warehouse. "That dude Tommy brought with him the other day is here."

Adrian pushed past the shorter man into the warehouse, barely sparing Deran a look of concern before carefully schooling his features to appear blank, emotionless. To a stranger he might have seemed calm, deceptively so, but Deran could see the anger brewing beneath the surface.

"S'up, A?" BG offered Adrian a nod in greeting. "Tommy ain't here."

"That's fine. I came for someone else," Adrian said, jerking a thumb in Deran's direction. "Play date’s over."

"That's up to Tommy, not you," 2-Bit stepped forward, shoulders back, chin raised defiantly. "We don't even know you, motherfucker."

"He knows me," Adrian gestured to BG. "It's not my fault you weren't listening when Tommy introduced us."

"You don't see the family resemblance? He's Tommy's little brother, you stupid fuck," BG revealed, a hint of caution in his tone. "I'd back off if I were you."

"I don't care who this bitch is," 2-Bit scoffed, rolling his eyes at the warning. "Tommy ain't done with his friend yet. No one’s taking him anywhere."

"If Tommy didn't want me to come here, he would have taken Deran somewhere I wouldn't find him," Adrian reasoned, hand coming to rest on the bulge on the small of his back. "He knew I'd come here looking eventually. He knew I would take Deran with me--"

"Like I said, he ain't going anywhere," 2-Bit, pulling a gun from the waistband of his jeans. "Tommy ain't through with him yet."

"Yes, he is," Adrian took a pistol from where it was hidden beneath his shirt. "This shit has nothing to do with you, man. It's a family problem. Walk away."

Deran knew Adrian wasn't a stranger to guns, Tommy and Jamie had taught him how to handle them safely as a kid. He had cleaned Deran's weapons, on occasions, when he'd come home late from a job too exhausted to do it himself. Up until that moment, Deran had never seen Adrian handle a gun with the intent to use it.

If Adrian were completely comfortable with the gun, Deran would have thought it looked wrong, but his nerves, the slight tremor in his hand, felt more honest than the stone-faced imitation of Tommy he was trying to put on. Deran watched him push through his anxiety with a deep breath, steeling himself as he flicked the safety off the gun, holding it as his side with his finger on the trigger.

"Tommy told us to keep an eye on the guy," Spanky drawled, pushing his glasses up his nose. "That sort of makes it our business."

"I don't care what my brother asked you to do," Adrian snapped, grip tightening on his weapon. "This is between me and him. It's got nothing to do with any of you."

"Maybe we just kill this bitch right now," 2-Bit trained the gun on Deran. "Save Tommy the trouble."

There was a split second of reaction time at the most, and Deran saw it all play out in slow motion, the tick in Adrian's jaw as he raised his arm, leveling the barrel of his gun with the other man's head. 2-Bit's finger barely grazed the trigger of his weapon before Adrian fired his own. Blood splattered from the hole in Bit's cheek, his body hitting the floor with a sickening thud a moment later.

"Yo!" Spanky started for Adrian, wrestling a gun from his belt. "Motherfucker!"

"Ah-ah!" BG clothes-lined the smaller man, knocking him flat on his back. "I told you he was Tommy's brother. What the fuck you think Tommy would do to you for even thinking of shooting him?"

"We cool, BG?" Adrian asked, walking backward toward Deran, weapon still firmly gripped in his hand. "You good here?"

"We good," BG assured him, pressing his foot to Spanky's throat. "Get your boy. Get the fuck outta here."

"Yeah," Adrian nodded, slipping the gun back into waistband and kneeling downside Deran's chair, working the knots of his bindings loose with trembling fingers.

"Adrian..." Deran breathed out his name, feeling the circulation return to his limbs without the ropes cutting into them. "Hey, I--"

"This is going to be easier if you don't talk," Adrian mumbled, helping Deran to his feet and addressing his brother's crew. "Tommy's got a problem with this, he knows where to find me."

* * *

_**NEW MESSAGES**_ **(5)**

**MA**: _your brother knows u got this boyfriend_

**ADRIAN**: _I told you to stay out of this part of my life._

**GRIM**: _problems at the warehouse._

**SPANKY**: _Your bro didn't have to do Bit like that._

**GRIM**: _need u here. asap._

If Tommy hadn’t already known that every goddamn person in his life had a penchant for blowing shit out of proportion, he would have thought the sky was falling from the texts he was receiving. He didn't let it rush him, took his time picking up 'Keisha from the apartment and taking her for a nice breakfast. Before the Cody kid had distracted him, Tommy had plans to introduce 'Keisha to his world, his real world, and he wasn't going to let anything get in the way of that. Lucky for his crew, giving 'Keisha an inside look at how his business worked meant showing her around the warehouse.

"So, what do you think?"

"I don't know," 'Keisha admitted nervously. "I don't know if I'm ready for all this, Tommy."

"Course you are, 'Keisha. Let me show you how I do," Tommy took her hand in his, leading her to the shelves where he stored the boxes of inventory. "I cop the Oxys at $3 a pill. I sell 'em to my primeras for $10. Now, those guys get about $20 for 'em on the corner. And we all eat."

"Hmm," 'Keisha studied the bottles of pills. "Looks like the real thing."

"It is. The Serbs ship 'em from Eastern Europe," Tommy grinned proudly. "It's the same quality as the shit behind the counter, minus the scrips. Percs, Xans, Adderall, Molly, whatever you want."

"Tommy!" BG shouted from across the warehouse. "Can I grab you a sec?"

"Hold up, 'Keisha," He smiled apologetically. "I'll be right back. Give me a minute."

Tommy pressed a kiss to her cheek and left her to look around on her own. He made his way to the other end of the warehouse, joining BG by the walk-in freezer they used to hold their cash.

"BG, how we looking?" Tommy asked, clapping the other man on the back. "How's the count looking?"

"We flusher than a motherfucker, boss, but you need to check this out," BG pulled open the old freezer, giving Tommy a clear view of the body lying on the floor. “Didn't think you'd want your girl stumbling over him, so I moved him in here."

"Shit," Tommy blanched, noting the damage made from a close-range shot to 2-Bit's face. "What the fuck happened?"

"Your brother showed up looking for the guy you had here," BG waved a hand toward the chair Deran had been tied up in. "Bit tried to stop him, was gonna shoot that Deran guy himself. He pulled first. Adrian shot first."

"Fuck," Tommy hoped he would be there when Adrian figured out where Deran had disappeared to, so he could control the situation. "Shit wasn't supposed to go down like that."

"Spanky wanted to retaliate--"

"If that motherfucker touched my baby brother--"

"He didn't. He won't. I made him understand what would happen if he tried," BG reassured him that no harm had come to Adrian. "How you wanna handle this, boss?"

"2-Bit pulled first, there's nothing to fucking handle," It was self-defense, plain and simple. "Get rid of the body and get back to fucking work."

* * *

Jess had learned very early in life that her brothers were the worst judges of character. They had a habit of attaching themselves to people who treated them like trash, who would discard them when they were no longer useful. As a result, over the years Jess had become rather dismissive of anyone they brought around, no matter how close they became or how long they chose to stick around. Tasha St. Patrick was the outlier, the exception to an unspoken rule.

They had been skeptical of each other at first, being the only two women, outside of Kate, in Tommy and Ghost's small circle. They let go of any misgivings between them pretty quickly when they realized they both had a way of calling the boys to heel, and that banding together made keeping the guys in check easier. Their ability to keep the boys in line had tapered off over the years, Tommy and Ghost had developed some kind of immunity to it, but that didn't stop Jess and Tasha from remaining close friends.

"Tommy was the one supposed to be meeting me, you know," Tasha mentioned as Jess put the car into park by the riverside. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, but what the hell happened to him?"

"All he told me was that something came up, didn't go into specifics," Jess wasn't sure she wanted the specifics anyway. "Instead of canceling on you, he sent me instead."

"You're better company anyway," Tasha smiled, taking a joint from jacket pocket. "Smoke?"

"Sure," It'd been awhile since Jess had a chance to just really relax, so why the hell not? "This what you and Tommy do when you meet up? Talk and get high?"

"Pretty much," Tasha confirmed, glancing out the windows to make sure there was no one around before she lit up. "So where's my goddaughter? You didn't leave her in Oceanside, did you?"

"No. No," She could have, Carter probably would have preferred it, but she wanted her family together. "She's with Mom."

"You left her with Kate?" Tasha raised her brows. "Didn’t little brother get into Kate’s coke when he was Charlie’s age, while she was supposed to be watching him?”

"She told me she's clean, and I searched the house for drugs before I left. I found nothing but aspirin. And I've got the nanny-cam linked to my phone," Jess pulled up the live-feed up on her cell to show the other woman. "It's in the plush turtle she loves carrying around. It's got Bluetooth and wifi shit, so even if they leave the house, so long as there’s an internet connection nearby I’ve got a visual on them."

"Damn," Tasha said approvingly. "You buy that specifically for Kate?"

"No, the daycare center Charlie's enrolled at," Jess and Carter both suffered from a severe case of separation anxiety when it was time for them to go back to work. "We miss her while we're at work, we can just see what's she's up to on the camera."

"And make sure the daycare staff isn't doing anything they shouldn't be."

"Yeah, that too," They had done a fair amount of research on the place before putting in the application, but they still weren't completely comfortable leaving their daughter with strangers. "It's like every other month there's a new article about something awful happening at a daycare."

"I get it," Tasha nodded. "That's why I chose the devil I know to watch my kids."

"Estelle's a piece of work, but she's more capable than most," Jess had never been the biggest fan of Tasha's mom, but neither had Tasha. "I hope she doesn't talk to Yas the way she talks to you."

"I'd beat her ass if she tried," Tasha exhaled, passing the joint over. "You let your dad around Charlie?"

"Hell no," She had never been that desperate for a babysitter. "I'd quit my damn job, move in with Adrian, and do the stay at home mom thing before I let that prick near her."

"Speaking of jobs, you still doing that shit for the city?"

"Yeah, but I'm thinking of switching things up, maybe going to law school," Studying criminal law could prove beneficial down the road. "If Tommy and Adrian are going to keep getting themselves into trouble, they’re going to need a good lawyer."

"And you love to argue."

"I really do."

Tommy had paid her college tuition the first time around with the explicit instructions that she not waste the brain she was born with. She had tried to pay that forward with Adrian, saving any extra cash she had to send him to college when it was time. He had balked at the idea of furthering his education after high school, instead using money he had saved himself to open Real Surf with Tao. When he finally decided college might be the right option and enrolled in UCSD, he had refused her any financial assistance from Jess and Tommy, and promptly dropped out of school after half a semester.

"I could always use the money I saved for Adrian to go back to school," It's not like she had to worry about finding the money for Charlie's future education, the toddler already had a substantial college fund thanks to parents and her uncles. They had all stepped up once she was born to make sure she was taken care of when the time came. "What about you? You ever think about going back, finishing your degree? You were almost there when you met Ghost. It was accounting or bookkeeping, right?"

"Shit. It's been so long, I wouldn't even know where to fucking start," Tasha admitted, leaning her head against the window. "I gotta do something, though. I got two kids to take care of. I mean, I got some money from Ghost, but it's not enough. I need a fuckin' job."

"You need a fresh start away from all this bullshit," Jess corrected, taking a hit off the joint. "You can always come out to Oceanside. You and the kids can stay with me and Charlie till we get you set up."

"Fuck. I'd love to get the hell out of here, but 'Riq would never go," Tasha sighed, stress and exhaustion painting her features. "Ghost would never let us go."

"How do you think this shit with Tommy and Ghost plays out?" Jess inquired, handing the joint back to the other woman. "They gonna work it out like usual or finally kill each other?"

"Honestly, I don’t know," Tasha said, drumming her nails over her thigh. "I don't even think I care anymore as long as my kids don't get caught in the crossfire."

"Just have to hope Tommy and Jamie are smart enough to keep their shit as far from the kids as possible," Jess knew they would try, but the likelihood of the children remaining unharmed physically and psychologically was slim to none. "It's a trip, you know, both my brothers being at odds with people they've considered family their whole lives."

"Fighting the same war on different fronts," Tasha hummed. "How do you think Adrian's plays out?"

"If it were anyone but the Codys, I'd bank on Adrian coming out on top," People often mistook her little brother for weak because of his sweet smile or easy-going personality, but it couldn't have been further from the truth. "I think in Adrian's mind, going up against them would only hurt Deran. Even with everything that's gone down between them, he's never wanted to be just another person in Deran's life who hurt him. What’s worse is he's never learned how to protect himself from Deran."

"I guess we're just going to have to protect him then," Tasha decided easily. "If he can't or won't do it himself, we'll do it."

"That's what Tommy and I were thinking," While Adrian had made his feelings on that clear, Jess, Tommy, and the rest of their little family were going to do what they had to do. "Just need to know how far to take it to get the point across."

"Well, I mean, we can't kill him, not when Adrian still loves him," Tasha acknowledged with a frown. "We could lose Adrian if we do that."

"I know. I know," Jess tipped her head back against the seat. "You know, this wouldn't be a problem if Adrian hadn't gotten Mom's taste in men."

"Fuck, right?" Tasha snickered. "Poor kid."

"Not that Tommy's taste in women has been any better," Her older brother's type didn't stray far from their mother and little brother’s. "Holly was manipulative, threatening to leave him every time he didn't do what she told him to."

"She knew how to play him, no doubt," Tasha agreed. "'Keisha's okay, though. You spent any time with her since she and Tommy became a thing?"

"No, not really," Jess hadn't minded 'Keisha when she was just Tasha's friend, she didn't see why that would change just because the woman was now in a relationship with her brother. "Tommy wants me to, but I don't know. He likes her. He really likes her. He may very well love her."

"And that's a bad thing?"

"With how he lives, how his world works, yeah, it could be, for her," Jess couldn't stand to see Adrian and Deran's history repeat itself in her older brother's relationship. "You could be friends with someone, loyal to them almost your entire life, and the minute that relationship turns romantic or whatever, that trust evaporates and you become the first suspect in any of the shit that goes wrong in the business or with the cops."

"That's not how shit's supposed to go," Tasha claimed, shaking her head. "That's not how it was for me and Ghost. He trusted me more with the business after we were together."

"If I spend time with 'Keisha, all I'm going to want to do is warn her to get the hell out of dodge," Jess wasn't sure she could sit in the same room as her brother's girlfriend and pretend like everything was going to turn out like sunshine and roses for them. "Best case scenario, she listens, gets her and her kid out of the line of fire, and breaks Tommy's heart in the process. Worst case, she tells Tommy what I said and he gets pissed at me."

"Don't say shit to her," Tasha advised. "She won't listen anyway. She's so wrapped up in him and becoming part of this shit, she won't hear anything against it."

"She's gotta learn the hard way."

"Adrian and I did," Tasha noted, a twisted grin playing on her lips. "Look at us now."

"Oh yeah, you guys are doing awesome."

"We're taking it one day at a time."

* * *

Adrian didn’t have a place of his own in New York to take Deran to. His mom’s house was too crowded with Jess and the baby, neither of which would be the least bit sympathetic to the wounded. Tommy’s loft, however, was almost certainly empty with Tommy spending his nights at ‘Keisha’s. Adrian chose to take Deran there only when he was sure it was a safe place for them to catch their breath and rest for as long as they needed to.

He checked Deran over once they were inside, made sure his injuries weren't life threatening, and then sent him to wash off the blood and grime in the shower. While Deran bathed, he scoured the apartment for first-aid supplies, gathering them all together neatly on the kitchen island. He was even kind enough to have a glass of whiskey to help chase away the pain waiting for Deran when he stumbled out of the bathroom to join him in the kitchen.

"How'd you know where I was?" Deran asked, breaking the silence that had followed them from the warehouse. "The way his guys reacted, I don’t think Tommy told you himself."

"My mom saw him take you," Kate's exact words had been something close to, '_If you're looking for the trash you left in the garage, your brother took it out after you left_', but Adrian didn't think Deran needed to know that. "Sit still."

"You were pretty pissed when you left," Deran said, sweeping his wet hair behind his ear. "Wasn't sure you'd come looking for me."

"This might sting," Adrian warned as he dabbed the peroxide soaked cottenball onto the cut on Deran's forehead. "I guess everyone's paying for the sins of their brothers this week."

"This had nothing to do with my brothers putting a hit on you," Deran grumbled, wincing when the antiseptic touched his open wound. "That what happened to you, though? Someone wanted to pay your brother back for something, used you to do it?"

"No," And he wasn't in the mood to explain why his face was busted and his back was bruised. "Tommy shouldn't have done this to you."

"He probably wouldn't have if he didn't know our business," Deran griped, glaring through his swollen eyes. "Did you have to tell him every fucking thing I ever did to you?"

"I didn't tell him anything," Adrian made a point not to tell Tommy things that could result in someone ending up in a shallow grave. "Everything he knows, he got secondhand.”

"Jess," Deran deduced, his body rigid and tense. "Did you have to tell her everything when you knew she would tell him?"

"Did you have to give me so much to tell her?" Adrian countered, dropping his hand away from Deran's face. "Take some responsibility for your own actions, Deran. Stop blaming me."

"Yeah, well, maybe if your brother didn't know shit, he wouldn't act like such a prick to me. Fuck," Deran croaked, crossing his arms over his chest. "At least my brothers like you."

"I've never given your brothers a reason not to like me," Adrian had treated Deran's brothers like his own since he was a little kid, had chosen to protect them even after they had turned their backs on him. "Your brothers want me dead, Deran."

"They still like you."

"Yeah, that actually makes it worse."

"Would it make you feel better if they hated you?" Deran clucked, taking a sip of whiskey. "They find out what you're brother did, you might get that wish."

"It'd make me feel better if they had a legitimate reason for wanting me dead." Was that too much to ask for? Knowing the Codys, probably. "I didn't do anything to them, to any of you. If you weren't still thinking like Smurf, this wouldn't even be a problem. The woman is dead. You don't have to do things her way anymore."

"That's what they're doing, not me," Deran distanced himself from the choices his family made, as usual. "I can't control what my brothers do or how they think, Adrian."

"It's not about control, Deran," Adrian had never tried to control the people in his lives to get what he wanted, his tactics were simpler than that. "All you have to do is open your mouth and speak."

"You really think talking to them will make a fucking difference?" Deran huffed. "Give me a break."

"This isn't the first time my brother's wanted you dead, Deran. I’ve always manage to talk him down," It hadn't been easy by any means, but Adrian had put in the time and effort to have a real conversation with Tommy, to convince him Deran didn't deserve to die for whatever it was he had done. "Maybe you should try that with your own brothers, instead of being such a pussy."

"I'm about tired of being called a pussy and a bitch," Deran complained, flinching at a sharp knock on the door. "Is that Tommy?"

"Tommy wouldn't knock," Adrian said, rising from his seat. "If you want people stop calling you a pussy, you need to stop acting like one."

Adrian hadn't been expecting anyone, he hadn't told anyone where he would be or who he was with. A quick look through the peephole left him both annoyed and suspicious when he caught sight of who was waiting for him on the other side.

"How in the hell..." Adrian let out a harsh breath as he pulled the door open to greet the other man. "Jason. You got lojack on me or something?"

"Oh, no, you're just predictable," Jason critiqued, pushing past him into the apartment. "You should work on that."

"I will," Adrian shut the door, noticing Jason was without his usual entourage. "Something I can help you with?"

"I thought I told you not to lose control," Jason spared Deran a passing glance before turning his back on him to give Adrian his attention. "That stunt you pulled this morning cost your brother one of his primeras."

"Someone else will step up to take 2-Bit's place," Adrian had watched Tommy execute one of his own primeras just days prior for mouthing off, he didn't see anyone giving him the third degree about it. "Tommy's primeras aren't really your concern, are they? So long as your product gets sold and you get paid, his crew is none of your business."

"Do you know why I approached you about my Oceanside territory?" Jason asked, taking a calculated step toward Adrian. "Have you wondered why I would reach out to the brother of one of my distributors?"

"So once you had me in deep enough, you could tell Tommy you were running me," Adrian had known exactly why he was on Jason's radar from the moment he made contact. "Then you could use us to control each other. Threaten one of us to get the other to do what you wanted."

"Your fates are tied from here on out. One of you steps out of line, you both will suffer for it," Jason placed his hands on Adrian's shoulders, squeezing them firmly, threateningly. "I suggest you learn to keep yourself and your brother in check."

"I'll take that under advisement," Adrian stuck his hands in his pockets, trying to appear relaxed and at ease. "Is that all?"

"I meant what I said before, I like you, Adrian. You're smart, adaptable. You might not be completely on board with your promotion yet, but you will be," Jason said confidently. "I've invested a lot of money in your future with my organization."

"And Tommy's," Adrian and his brother were a package deal after all. "My involvement in your organization almost guarantees his obedience."

"I spent a good deal of money getting you off the hook with DEA because I expect you to make me much more. That does not mean I'm afraid to chalk it all up as a loss if you prove to be more trouble than you’re worth," Jason remarked, looking down his nose at Adrian. "Do not think for a second that you are not expendable to me."

"You don't have to worry about me," Adrian had no intention of letting him or Tommy down. "I'm in control of myself."

"And your Cody problem, are you in control of that?" Jason gazed over his shoulder to Deran. "One way or another, that beef needs to be quashed by the time I send you back to Oceanside."

"I told you before, the Codys aren't a problem," Adrian would stand by that statement till the end of the line where Jason was concerned. "If they were, I would handle it."

"Seems like Tommy tried to handle it himself from the looks of lover-boy," Jason referred to Deran. "You can have the day to nurse his wounds, but you'll have to find a babysitter for him tomorrow; you and Tommy will be busy taking care of something for me."

"Fine," There had to be at least one person in Adrian's life he could convince to look after Deran if necessary. "What’s the job?"

"Tommy will fill you in, I'm meeting with him next," Jason moved around Adrian to the door. "This business with your boyfriend, will it complicate things between you and Tommy? Make it difficult for you to work together?"

"No," Adrian didn't like what his brother had done, but part of him understood it. "We're cool."

"Good," Jason grinned, pulling the door open. "I do hope you’re successful."

"Jesus Christ," Deran groaned as the door slammed shut behind Jason. "What the fuck, Adrian?"

"What?" Adrian flicked the lock on the door and turned to Deran. "What's your problem now?"

"You're all up in arms because my brothers want you dead and you think I can do something about it," Deran muttered, balling his hands into fists. "But your brother was ready to beat me to death, and you and him are cool."

"If Tommy was going to kill you, he would have put a bullet in your head or lit you on fire," He wouldn't have wasted the energy on a beating. "The only person who had any intention of killing you was 2-Bit, and I took care of that."

"Yeah," Deran sniffed, swallowing a lump in his throat. "Yeah, you did."

"You should finish cleaning yourself up," Adrian gestured to the peroxide and bandages. "Then get some sleep. The couch is pretty comfortable."

"I've done the same for you, you know," Deran said suddenly, shifting in his chair. "W-What you did to 2-Bit, I-I've done that for you."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I killed Colby," Deran confessed, rubbing the bruises forming on his wrist. "He, uh, he came around after Jack and his crew got rounded up. He didn't know for sure you were a rat, but the way things looked, he knew he could sell that lie t-to Smurf or Pope if I didn't pay him."

"I'm sorry," Adrian had never wanted anyone to make that kind of choice for him, let alone Deran. "I'm sorry you had to do that. I know Colby was a friend--"

"Colby was a bastard," Deran spit out. "I'm not sorry about what I did to him. I just... I wanted you to know that I'd do it for you too-- that I've done it for you."

"What are you trying to say, Deran?" He didn't want to jump to conclusions or put words in the other man's mouth, but Adrian had a feeling he knew where the conversation was headed. "We've both killed for each other, so now we're even?"

"No! That's not-- _**Ugh**_," Deran grunted, dropping his head into his hands. "I don't-- Fuck. Can we talk about something else?"

"We don't have to talk about anything," Adrian was tired of talking anyway, it's not like they were getting anywhere. "You were pretty good at giving me the silent treatment when we lived together, I don't know why you're struggling with it now."

"Who was that guy?" Deran asked, ignoring Adrian's request for peace and quiet. "How long have you been working for him? What have you done for him that would convince him to invest money in you?"

"I got him Oceanside," He had been given a task that he had completed to the best of his ability, end of story. "Jack didn't make it hard. Like you said, he was an idiot. Didn't even have to set him up, really. He overloaded the board himself; I just took it from there."

"You got Jack arrested on purpose to clear out Oceanside so that guy-- your boss could move in. Jack was a job," Deran used the new information to connect the dots. "You could have fucking told me that!”

"If I had told you, you would have followed me to a meet with Jason and confronted him--"

"No, I wouldn't--"

"You confronted Jack when you found out I was working for him. He told me all about that," Adrian was still livid about that. "If you had gotten in Jason's face the way you had Jack's, threatened him, he would have executed you on the spot, along with anyone else he thought you might have told."

"So you kept me in the dark to protect me?" Deran scoffed, shaking his head. "I'm actually supposed to believe that?"

"I always protect you, Deran," It was the one constant in their relationship. "If you haven't realized that out by now, then ending things between us was the right call."

* * *

They met Frankie at a scenic overlook spot just off the highway. It was a few miles out of town, zero foot traffic in the area, and as far away from J's listening ears as they could get with out arousing suspicion.

"What'd you find out?" Pope didn't make a habit out of wasting time, if they were going to war, he needed to know sooner rather than later. "Is what Pete Trujillo said legit? Does Adrian have a connection to the Serbian mafia?"

"I only had time to make a few phone calls, but it looks like Adrian's half-brother, Thomas Egan," Frankie slid a photo of the man across the table to them. "Has been distributing for them for well over two years."

"Distributing what?" Craig asked, knee bouncing anxiously under the table. "Stolen goods? Drugs?"

"High-grade pharmaceuticals," Frankie clarified. "Thomas controls most of the drug trade in New York City."

"And Adrian?" Pope inquired, flipping the photo of Thomas Egan facedown. "Are the Serbs protecting him because of his brother or for another reason?"

"Adrian Dolan has been associated with the organization for the last several months, eight or so, give or take," Frankie revealed, smoothing a hand through her hair. "He's been assisting them locally, snatching up territory from the Jimenez."

"Jimenez," Pope was familiar with the cartel, but never had any run-ins with them. "They control LA., too. That seems like a bigger playground than Oceanside if someone wants to stage a takeover."

"Oceanside could have been a test to see how much control the Jimenez still had with Diego dead and Alicia in jail," Frankie theorized. "If Alicia can't keep such a small territory under her power from prison, then she certainly can't keep Los Angeles. It's prime spot, ripe for the taking, and the Serbians want it."

"Hold up," Craig held up a hand. "If Adrian's been working for the Serbs, what the fuck was that shit with Jack's crew?"

"I just told you he was clearing out territory," Frankie retorted, annoyance flickering over her face. "Can you imagine how easy that would be with everyone in jail? It was a risky play, but probably the only way to avoid a bloody turf war."

"Huh," Craig turned to Pope. "You think Deran knew?"

"No," Pope would bet Deran was last to find out anything. "You think Deran would let Adrian get involved in something like that?"

"Why would Deran care if Adrian is in the life?" Frankie questioned, brows furrowed. "You all are thieves. What difference does it make if his boyfriend is a different class of criminal?"

"Deran's cool with Adrian being on our side of the law when he's helping us, but--"

"It doesn't matter," Pope interjected, not seeing the point in delving into Deran's psyche. "Bottom line, do we need to be worried about the Serbians or not?"

"Guess that depends on you," Frankie determined, pursing her lips. "And Adrian. Is he the type to take offense to having a hit put out on him?"

"I don't know," Craig shrugged. "We've never done it before."

"We still haven't," They were not the ones who sent the Trujillos after Adrian. "It was J. _**We**_ had nothing to do with it."

"You want my advice: Apologize and make peace," Frankie instructed, slipping her sunglasses over her eyes. "Lay _**your**_ cards on the table before J makes another move that results in you becoming the secret ingredient in Serbian stew."

"Do they really do that?" Craig cringed, going a little green around the gills. "Eat people and shit?"

"Can't say for sure," Frankie hummed, rising from the table. "But I’ve heard they like white meat."

* * *

With all the shit that had gone down between his crew and his little brother, the last thing Tommy wanted to do was deal with whatever it was Jason had in store for him. Unfortunately, he wasn't exactly in the position to say no when the text message ordering him to a meeting came in.

"Jason, come on, man," Tommy's patience was running a little thin after being manhandled and frisked. "What's going on? We got a problem?"

"I have a big fuckin' problem on account of you not delivering on a promise," Jason declared, pouring himself a drink from his office bar. "Alicia Jimenez. I still don't have the ports. If she goes to prison for real, it'll mean a full-on war for control of the Jimenez cartel, which means I will have to deal with a whole new set of assholes to get my drugs into LA. That shit can't happen, Tommy.”

"What the fuck you want me to do about it? She in fed custody," If she was out on bail or something, Tommy could take her out no problem, but he had no way to get to her as long as she was in lock-up. "I ain't got no female hitters in the pen."

"That's fine. I don't want her dead anyway-- well, not yet," Jason decided. "I want you to bring her to me alive."

"Alive?" Of all the crazy ass shit Tommy had heard lately, that order certainly took the cake. "How the fuck do you expect me to do that?"

"With her trial starting, an opportunity might present itself. I'm sure you'll figure something out. If you successfully bring her to me, I will waive one of your security payments," Jason offered up a reward for the trouble he was putting Tommy and his crew through. "Oh, and you'll be taking Adrian with you."

"No," There were just some lines Tommy wouldn't let his brother cross. "Look, man, I know he did a job for you and all, but this ain't his life, man."

"Adrian is going to be your proxy on the West Coast. He will run things for you there. That is another job that he has accepted," Jason smirked, pleased that he had managed to convince Tommy's brother to get deeper into the life than he ever needed to be. "You need to show him how things are done. He will be attached to your hip until I feel he's ready to return to Oceanside."

"The kid isn't anywhere near experienced enough to run the entire West Coast operation," Tommy struggled with just New York and he had been in the life since middle school. "You're setting him up to fail."

"He's street-smart. He may not have always been in the game, but he knows it from watching you and Ghost," Jason reasoned, taking a swill from his crystal tumbler. "I like that he's green, that he has no alliances in the business outside you and me. He can be taught what he needs to know, molded into what he needs to be."

"He don't need to be this," Tommy loved the game, it was the only thing he was good at, but he never wanted it for his family. "You need someone on the West Coast, I can send one of my guys--"

"Your men are expendable to you," Jason commented, setting his drink on the desk. "Your brother isn't."

"You think bringing him into the business is going to keep me in line?"

"You refuse an order, miss a payment, fail to deliver on yet another promise, Adrian will pay the price for it," Jason laid out the new stipulations of their partnership. "If he doesn't perform as well I hope, you will pay the price."

"Then you're setting us both up to fail," Tommy wondered if that was the point. "My brother knows the life, yeah, but he's not built for it. He can't... He can't make the choices we gotta make sometimes."

"I had my doubts about him too, until this morning," Jason grinned, wide and proud, _**smug**_. "He proved he is capable of pulling a trigger if it needs pulling."

"To protect his boyfriend," Taking a life for someone you cared about was a hell of a lot different than executing an enemy.

"And from here on out any shots he needs to fire will be to protect you."

"Jesus."

* * *

Deran had crashed out on the couch since late in the afternoon, courtesy of some heavy-duty pain killers Adrian had found stashed in the medicine cabinet. As much as Adrian had enjoyed being interrogated over his choices, he was happy to have Deran's judgmental tone shift into soft snores. He welcomed the quiet, basked in it for the few short hours he had it before his mother arrived with his dufflebag and a couple sacks of groceries.

"Thanks for coming," He took his backpack from her to lighten her load. "For bringing my stuff and some food."

"What the hell else was I going to do tonight? My three ungrateful bastards are in the city at the same time for the first time in I don't know how long, and they all have better things to do than spend time with their mother," Kate complained, setting the groceries on the kitchen counter. "Tommy's at LaKeisha's. Jess took my granddaughter to Tasha's for a sleepover with Yasmine. And apparently you're planning to stay here now."

"It's just temporary," He would be back in his mother's house as soon as he had Deran on a plane back to California. "I wasn't sure Deran was up for another round with Jess after Tommy got a hold of him."

"Probably best to keep your excess baggage out the house," Kate glanced at Deran's still form on the couch. "You know Tommy and 'Keisha split time between her place and here, right?"

"No, I didn't," That was good information to have, though. "He's not going to be here long anyway."

"That's not what Jess seems to think," Kate mentioned as she started unloading the food she had brought to fill the empty cupboards and fridge. "She told me what's been going on with you and this kid."

"I'm sure she was completely unbiased and objective," Adrian couldn't blame his sister for her opinions on his relationship really, she was the one he turned to most often when things went bad between him and Deran. "Look, Mom, I, um, I kind of need a favor."

"I'm listening."

"I have something to do tomorrow, it's going to take most of the day," It was hard to pin down a timetable when he had no idea what the job actually was. "I was hoping you'd look after Deran while I was gone."

"Why?" His mother furrowed her brows. "Afraid Tommy will come back and finish him off?"

"Tommy will be with me all day," Adrian wasn't planning to let him out of his sight on the off chance that he would slip away to finish what he started the previous night. "He beat up Deran pretty bad. I'm not comfortable leaving Deran on his own right now."

"He had no problem leaving you on your own, from what your sister told me," Kate remarked coldly. "Why would you help him after that?"

"Because I'm not him," He wouldn't just leave the people he cared about to fend for themselves. "Are you going to help me out or not?"

"Fine. I'll watch him," She agreed with a heavy sigh. "Your brother and sister aren't gonna like this."

"That's why I'm asking you," Adrian wouldn't bother if he thought she would contribute to the physical and emotional damage Jess and Tommy had already dealt out. "You're the only one I can trust with this. With him."

"What exactly do you want me to do with him while I babysit?"

"Feed him, water him, make sure he changes his bandages."

“Make sure he doesn’t die?

“Pretty much, yeah.”

* * *

Craig was beginning to enjoy being the one to get up with his son in the morning. Sitting on the porch, watching the sun come up with the little bundle wrapped tightly in his arms was better than any high he'd had in a long time. It would have been as peaceful and serene as any other morning if not for Craig's goddamn phone going off.

"Sorry, little dude," He apologized to his son as he brought the phone to his ear. "This better fucking good. You know how early it is?"

_"Shit. Sorry. Time zones messed me up."_

"Deran!" Craig jerked, jostling his son. "What the hell, man? Where the hell are you?"

_"I'm with Adrian."_

"Well, duh," That was pretty much the least surprising part about the entire situation. "And where the hell is that? Indonesia?"

_"I don't want to say."_

"Why the hell not?"

_"Because I don't want your hit man coming after us."_

"Fuck, man, no," Craig was not taking the heat for that. "That wasn't me and that wasn't Pope. That was fucking J, man."

_"Yeah, well, you weren't exactly leaving messages on my phone to warn me, were you?"_

"We just found out, Deran," Okay, yeah, they had over a day to let Deran know, but they had other shit going on. "Pope and I didn't know shit until Pete Trujillo showed up at the house bitching out J for not telling him Adrian was working for the Serbs."

_"What're you talking about?"_

"Serbians burned down Pete's garage, killed some of his guys, told him to back the hell off," There were probably easier ways to do it that didn't involve bloodshed, but it certainly got the point across. "What the fuck's Adrian gotten himself into, man?"

_"I don't know, Craig. Some guy his brother works for, he's working for him too."_

"How longs that been going on?" It was hard for Craig to picture Adrian, the kid he'd watch grow up, working for the mafia. "What's he doing for them?"

_ **"I don't know."** _

"Well, what the hell do you know?"

_"I know you guys need to get J to back the fuck off."_

"J thinks Adrian gave the cops something on us," Craig and Pope weren't so sure, but, like J, they had nothing to prove otherwise. "A cop friend of Smurf's told him Adrian's deal with the feds got put back on the table. Full immunity."

_"That's 'cause the guy he's working for paid off the feds."_

"Shit," Craig would take that to J if he thought his word would make a difference. "You got any proof of that?"

_"No, you know what, Craig, when the guy was here yesterday, I forgot to get him to sign an affidavit saying he bribed a DEA agent."_

"All right. All right. Relax," There was no need to get snippy about it. "Look, Pope and me, we'll talk to J, all right? We'll get him to understand."

_"You fucking better. I don't think Adrian's going to be able to stop his brother from trying to kill my ass again if he gets wind of another threat."_

"'_**Again**_'?" Craig tensed, holding his son tighter against his chest. "What happened? What did they do to you?"

_"Tommy found out our family put a hit out on his brother, what the hell do you think he did?"_

"Fuck," Craig didn't know Adrian's brother very well, but as a big brother he knew exactly what he would do if the roles were reversed. "Are you okay?"

_"I got my ass kicked, but I'm fine. It could have been worse."_

"You need to come home."

_"Not yet."_

* * *

Adrian had slipped out of the loft as soon as Kate turned up for babysitting duty in the morning. He didn't wait for her to sit down or for Deran to question why she was there, he didn't want to give either of them a chance to ask where he was going or what he would be doing. He just snatched his mom's car keys and bolted out the door.

Despite his early start, he was the last one to arrive at the warehouse, everyone else was already there and preparing for the day. Tommy was at the table, studying a schematic while 'Keisha looked over the inventory, and the crew was spread around, keeping themselves busy while they waited for things to come together.

"Hey, Grim," Adrian greeted BG with a timid smile. "You cool? After everything yesterday, I just wanted to check in with you, you know."

"Yeah, man, we cool," BG nodded. "You got nothing to worry about."

"Wasn't worried about me," Adrian knew his brother would step in to settle any beefs if he thought he was really in trouble. "You had my back yesterday after I…-- After stuff with your friend. I just wanted to make sure I didn't put you in a bad spot with the rest of the crew."

"2-Bit wasn't my friend, just an asshole I had to work with," BG brushed off any hard feelings there might have been about 2-Bit's death. "Spanky's a little sore, but he'll get over it."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, man, no worries. Everything's cool," BG assured him with an easy grin. "Hey, uh, this stuff I've been hearing about you taking point on the West Coast, any truth to that?"

"Some, yeah," Adrian wasn't entirely sure of the specifics yet. "Where'd you hear that?"

"Tommy was mumbling about it after his meeting with Jason last night," BG shrugged. "You, um, you got a crew lined up?"

"No, not yet," Jason had some guys in Oceanside already, but Adrian had no idea if they were going to be at his disposal or if he would have to put together his own team. "Why, you thinking of transferring to warmer climates?"

“I’m wondering if California winters will be less harsh on my moms,” BG acknowledged, a pensive expression on his face. “Think Tommy would be cool with me transferring or what not? You be cool with it?"

"I can use someone I can trust out there," Adrian was seriously lacking in both experience and a trustworthy crew. "It would probably make Tommy feel better to know I've got someone we both trust to have my back."

"Yo! A, BG, Spank! Get the fuck over here!" Tommy called them all to the table. "Let’s go over the plan."

"You want to fill me in?" Adrian asked as he made his way over. "I don't know anything about the job except that there is one."

"What'd you know about Alicia Jimenez?"

"Head of the Jimenez cartel. Took over the border after Lobos was killed," The only reason Adrian knew that was because the Jimenez controlled most of the drug trade in California. "She tried to expand out here, trusted the wrong people, got herself arrested. Feds have her in custody."

"We gotta break her out of fed custody and deliver her to Jason," Tommy divulged, leaning over the table. "It's going down this afternoon at the courthouse."

"How?" Spanky questioned. "You said you had a plan.”

"She gonna have a medical emergency during court. We'll be the paramedics attending to her," Tommy gestured between Adrian, himself, and Spanky. "No one's gonna stop us if they think we're taking her to the hospital."

"Deran did the paramedic thing for a job once," Adrian mentioned casually. "Came home looking like he got hit by a truck."

"Shit," Tommy rocked back on his heels. "What happened?"

"He got hit by a truck." Which, hindsight, probably wasn’t best story to tell if they were planning a similar run. “It turned out fine. He was fine. He walked it off. They all walked it off, you know, walked away with minimal injuries. “

"Inspiring tale, Tommy's brother," Spanky said condescendingly, rolling his eyes. "Tommy you really want to send him in there with his face all busted up like that?"

"EMT’s pick up nut jobs all the time, one could have easily taken a swing at him while he was trying to treat them," Tommy surmised, not too worried about it. "He'll be wearing a ball-cap and keeping his head down anyway, it'll be all right."

"What am I doing, boss?" BG asked, waiting expectantly for his marching orders. "If I ain't playing EMT with the rest of you?"

"BG, you're in the SUV, parked on sublevel two," Tommy pointed to the spot on the courthouse blueprints. "I need you to make sure the feds don’t follow our ambulance out."

"You got it, boss."

"My source says we only got a tiny window to snag Alicia Jimenez before they bring her down for processing. After that, we ain't gonna have no access to her, and we fucked," Tommy detailed potential problems that could arise. "The only place that they ain't gonna have eyes on her is in the bathroom. So I need to know the second that she's in there alone."

"How are we supposed to know when she's in the restroom?" Adrian raised a brow. "You going to put on a wig and a dress and wait for her to go in?"

"He'd make one ugly ass woman," Spanky snorted. "Could your inside man hit us up?

"Nah, I thought about that, but he's too exposed already," Tommy chewed on his bottom lip. "As soon as his part in the plan is over, he gotta disappear."

"Hey, boss, maybe I can go up, you know," BG suggested. "I could be on lookout."

"I need you in that garage," Tommy tapped the location on the blueprints once more, looking to Adrian and Spanky again. "And the three of us, we gonna be on the street until it's time to move."

"So who gonna be posted up in the ladies' room?" Spanky restated the previous question. "Asshole baby brother's in the game. You got a hot sister you want to bring into the fold too?"

"Unless you want to catch a bullet sandwich, you'll keep any thoughts of my little sister out your head and your damn mouth," Tommy warned, glancing over his shoulder to 'Keisha. "Shit. I think I got an idea."

"You want to bring 'Keisha in on this?" Adrian had only been in the business a few months, five minutes compared to Tommy, but he could recognize a bad idea when he saw one. "You sure about that?

"You got someone else in mind?"

"No."

"Then we bringing in 'Keisha."

* * *

Deran didn't appreciate being left with a babysitter. Sure, he had taken a rough beating, but it wasn't as if it was the first time he'd ever had his ass kicked. He could take care of himself, he didn't need to be looked after or tended to.

Thankfully, Kate Egan wasn't the most nurturing of sorts. She didn't try to interact with him, talk or change his bandages for him. She dawdled in the kitchen, doing one thing or another, and he was comfortable ignoring her until a delicious aroma drifted to his nose that he couldn't pass up.

"That's your _'we need to talk'_ lasagna, right?" Deran asked, licking his lips as she sprinkled handfuls of cheese over the pan. "Adrian told me you always make lasagna when you're about tell them why they need to get rid of whoever they’re dating."

"Well, I'm making this for Adrian and he's single, so..." Kate hummed, adding more toppings to the dish. "This time lasagna is just lasagna."

"And if he and I were still together?" It felt like they were, it had only been a couple of days since they had separated. "What would you tell him about me?"

"That it could never work between you," Kate replied, slipping the lasagna into the oven. "It's not either of your faults. It's just how you grew up."

"We grew up together."

"You're a rich kid, right? Big house. Nice clothes. Food on the table every night," Kate scrutinized him. "You could've had anything you wanted whenever you wanted."

"It didn't come for free," Deran argued, sitting down at the kitchen island. "My mom, she made us work for her, pulling jobs."

"Tough work stealing from people. At least my boys sell product, they don't just rip people off," Kate tutted, moving around the kitchen to clean up the mess she'd made while cooking. "Me, I danced in Atlantic City before Tommy was born, waited tables and bartended with Jess and Adrian."

"Your point?"

"You were taught to take what you wanted. My kids, they have earned every single thing they've ever had," Kate boasted. "You moved Adrian into a house he would never be able to afford to live in. You threw money at him after sex. For someone like Adrian, who needs to earn what he has, can you see how that might make him feel more like your whore than your boyfriend?"

"He really did tell Jess _**everything**_, didn't he?" Fuck. Deran had only tossed money at Adrian the one time, it wasn't a mistake he dumb enough to make twice. "I wasn't trying to make him feel like..._**that**_. I was doing him a favor. He was broke. He needed money. I gave him some. It's not a big deal."

"Adrian isn't the kind of person who wants things to be handed to him," Kate insisted. "You can't just give him money or put him up in some flashy overpriced house. He needs to pull his own weight or he'll never believe he belongs where he is or deserves what he has."

"What the hell makes you think you know Adrian so well?" Deran spent most his life with Adrian by his side, more time than Kate or Tommy ever had. If anyone knew him, it was Deran. "You pick all that up in-between snorting lines of coke?"

"My sobriety doesn't dictate how well I know my kids," Kate determined matter-of-factly. "And I know that all Adrian wanted from you was for you to care about him the same way he cares about you. The other night, you proved to him you didn't."

"I do care about him."

"If you did, you would have gone with him," Kate remarked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "He was never going to go without you, you know? I mean, did you really think he'd still go along with your plan after you abandon him?"

"I wasn't abandoning him. He just... He couldn't stay and I-I couldn't go," He had been in a no-win situation, he lost someone with whichever decision he made. "I couldn't leave my brothers."

"But he was supposed to leave his? He was supposed to leave his family behind over your family's bullshit?" Kate scoffed. "You sent him away, knowing if he went through with your plan he would spend the rest of his life alone. That right there, that shows how little you cared about him, if you ever cared about him at all."

* * *

The plan couldn't have gone any smoother if Tommy wanted it to. His crew, his girl, his brother, they'd all done exactly what they were supposed to do without stepping a foot out line. Every goddamn thing Tommy had set up, every piece of the puzzle had fallen into place perfectly.

Alicia Jimenez fallen ill thanks to some tainted water strategically placed on the defendant's table by his inside man. She had rushed to the restroom to purge the poison from her system, unaware that 'Keisha was hiding in a nearby stall, texting Tommy to give his men the green-light. Spanky and Adrian had gone in wearing their paramedic garb, loaded Alicia onto the gurney, and gotten her down to the parking level of the courthouse without a single person trying to stop them.

Seeing Ghost in the lot had been a welcome surprise. Tommy had a fun little 'fuck you' moment when they were loading Alicia into the ambulance and he realized Ghost was there for her just like they were. And after BG had played his part, cutting off the feds with his SUV, Tommy let himself bask in the knowledge that not only had his plan gone off without a hitch, but he'd beaten Ghost at his own game.

The job wasn't truly done until Alicia was in Jason's hands, but Tommy didn't need the whole crew with him to do that. They pulled the vehicles off a few miles out from the courthouse, moving Spanky into BG's car, before Tommy and Adrian continued on in the ambulance to Jason's warehouse.

"So, were you gonna tell me Jason promoted you?" Tommy asked once he and his brother were alone-- well, as alone as they could get with an unconscious woman in the back of the rig. "Or were you just gonna let me keep looking like a fucking idiot every time he brought you up in a meeting?"

"Were you going to tell me you took Deran?" Adrian countered, checking for a tail or police presence in the side-mirrors. "Or just toss his body in the Hudson and hope I didn't find out?"

"I wasn't going to kill him," He wanted to, but he had enough restraint to know he couldn't. "I wouldn't do that to you, all right? You'd blame yourself, and I wouldn't put that blood on your hands."

"You did put blood on my hands, Tommy," Adrian clenched his fists, digging his nails into his palms. "I had to kill a man, one of your guys, to protect Deran, to get him back."

"I'm sorry you had to do that," If Tommy had any regrets with that situation, it was leaving Deran with his crew instead of just locking him in the trunk of his car. "I don't know what else to say."

"How about you just stay out of my problems with Deran for here on out," Adrian proposed. "And I'll stay out of the ones you're creating with Lakeisha."

"What's your problem with 'Keisha?"

"You shouldn't be bringing her into your business," Adrian snapped, shaking head. "What the hell are you thinking, Tommy? You've been screwing her a few months, now you think she's cool with all this?"

"She lied to the cops for us after Raina was killed. She knew the risk she was taking by doing that, she did it anyway," He wouldn't have brought her into things if he didn't think he could trust her. "If she's willing to do that, she down for all of this."

"I've been lying to the cops for Deran since we were kids, that didn't stop his family putting a hit out on me."

"This is not the same thing," He was pretty fucking affronted by the comparison. "Don't put me in line with those assholes."

"'Keisha has a kid, Tommy. She has something more important than herself to lose," Adrian reminded him. "When the cops use her son to threaten her to get to you -- and they will -- she choose him. You want to be with her, be with her, but do not give her inside knowledge of your business that she can use against you later."

"I think you were right, you should stay out of my shit with 'Keisha," Tommy growled, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. "And I'll stay out of your shit with Deran."

"Perfect," Adrian muttered petulantly. "You want to talk about our family or the business, that's fine, but our relationships are off limits."

"Fine," He could agree to those terms for at least the duration of the ambulance ride. "About that promotion Jason gave you...."

"It's better that I'm your proxy on the West Coast than some asshole you've never met, right?" Adrian reasoned. "I know you're not okay with me being in the life, but we can't change that now, so, I was thinking you'd feel better if someone else you trusted, someone who knows the game, was out there with me."

"Who you got in mind?"

"Grim," Adrian offered a name. "I ran it by him already. He's open to it, but only if you're on board."

"I can get behind that," Grim had stepped up as Tommy's #2 since Julio had been killed. "He been with me a long time."

"I know that's why I thought you'd open to letting me take him out West," Adrian said hopefully. "He's not one of Jamie or Dre's cast-off's like Spanky. He's one of yours. We both trust him."

"Yeah," It was a good idea, Tommy couldn't argue with that. "When you supposed to head back to Oceanside?"

"Whenever Jason feels I'm ready, I guess."

"Gives me a chance to teach you some things," If his little brother was going to be in the life, Tommy was going to make damn sure he was prepared to handle the shitstorm that came with it. "But I'm gonna need something from you in return."

"Okay?"

"I need you to start talking to me," He was sick of being out of the loop. "I know you prefer to deal with stuff yourself, but I need to know what's going on with you. I don’t mean business shit, I mean personal shit."

"So you can interfere?"

"So I can know what the fuck is going on. So I can help you," The miles between New York and California put enough strain on their relationship, Tommy didn't want radio silence distancing them further. "We're brothers, motherfucker. That's what we do."

"'Cause you kept me so well informed of all the shit going on with you and Jamie," Adrian shot back, glaring out the windshield. "You waited till I got here to tell me anything. You didn't even tell me when he tried to kill you. I had to find that out from him when he thought he succeeded. Do you have any idea what that was like, thinking one of my brothers had killed the other?"

"That shit with Ghost escalated quickly. I didn't have a lot of time to tell you nothing," To be fair, he could have put in a phone call or sent a text after Ghost had lit up his Mustang to let his family know he was all right, but it hadn’t been a priority at the time. "I didn't think he would reach out to you after he took a shot at me. I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about my stuff with Jason and the DEA," Adrian relented, slumping down in his seat. "I wasn't trying to leave you in the dark, I just thought I had it under control."

"We're gonna have to work on our communication," Tommy decided. "Let's just get this job done first."

"Most of it is done," Adrian pointed out. "How'd you get the location and exact time of Alicia's trial anyway? With all the enemies she has, the feds wouldn't have made that information public, unless you got one on your payroll."

"Nah, man. The guy who helped us out in there, our inside man, that's Proctor's guy, works in the courthouse," Tommy's lawyer seemed to have a lot of connections willing to do a number of unsavory things for the right price. "I convinced Proctor to get him on board for us."

"Do Jason's instructions feel right to you? Getting her out alive, I mean," Adrian asked curiously. "She's the competition, right? Shouldn't Jason just want her dead?"

"He wants information for her so he can get the ports and territory," Tommy had his doubts she would actually give up that information. "She dead as soon as she gives up the information. She knows it, too. She a smart bitch."

"If she's dead either way, why give it up? She'd just be betraying the rest of the cartel, putting her people in danger for nothing," Adrian acknowledged. "She has no reason to give him anything he wants. I guess he could torture her, but if she knows she's going to die, that might not do much good."

"Jason's got something up his sleeve," He always did, in Tommy's experience. "He sent Ghost in after Alicia too."

"Yeah, I saw him in the courthouse pretending to be an elevator repairman," Adrian admitted. "Jason's trying to play you against each other."

"He wanted to see if my personal beef would get in the middle of business."

"It didn't."

"Not this time."

* * *

Deran's phone call to Craig might have been more revealing than he would have liked. He hadn't wanted them to know where he was, but confessing to Craig that Adrian's brother had given him a good beating was all they needed to know he was somewhere in New York City. It hadn't taken Pope or Craig long to narrow down the search area after finding Kate Egan’s contact information, phone number and address, in Adrian’s cellphone left behind at Deran's place.

It was Pope's idea to go check on their missing brother. Their nephew’s missteps regarding Adrian had put a target on their back, not just from the Serbians but Adrian's family as well. With the new information that Frankie had given them, it was clear they didn't know nearly enough about the Dolan's extended New York family to leave Deran in their clutches, alone and unprotected, even if Adrian was looking out for him.

Craig had wanted to be the one to go, he'd always been closer to Deran than the rest of them, but he had a new baby, a new family to watch over. Pope didn't have anything keeping him in Oceanside day-to-day, not anymore, it was easier for him to just pack his bags and head out for however long he needed to.

"You going somewhere?" J questioned, strolling into Pope's room uninvited. "Now?"

"Got the red-eye out," Pope confirmed, zipping his dufflebag and hitching it over his shoulder. "Don’t know when I’ll be back."

"Deran's already AWAL. It's not really a good time for you to be leaving too," J commented, crossing his arms over his chest. "What if those survivalist come around looking to retaliate?"

"I guess you better handle it," It wasn't Pope's job to worry about the fallout of Smurf's last job, he wasn't the one in charge. "You're the big man now, right? It's your job to deal with that shit."

"Pope, you can't leave."

"I don't need your permission," Pope wasn’t going to take orders from a kid. "Craig's spending time with his son while I'm gone, so he's not going to be doing anything for you either. If you need something done, I suggest you find someone you haven't screwed over yet."

"You at least going to tell me where you're going?" J asked, blocking Pope's route to the door. "In case something happens, someone should know."

"I'm going to clean up the mess you made," Craig knew where he would be, that was good enough for him. "Make sure the Serbians know we're not a threat to Adrian."

"He's a threat to us."

"The only real threat this family ever had was from Smurf," Pope had known that since he was a child, but like his brothers, he learned to live with it rather than facing it head on like he should have. "Now it's you."

* * *

The only thing Adrian wanted after watching Jason execute Alicia Jimenez was a stiff drink. His mother had sensed that as soon as he returned to the loft, she'd given him a kiss on the cheek, let him know there was lasagna cooling on the counter and left without another word. Deran, however, never could read a room, and figured it was a fantastic time for another row.

"Talked to Craig," Deran mentioned, stabbing into a slab of lasagna with his fork. "He said you were working for the Serbs."

"Okay," Adrian wasn't even going to ask how Craig had found that out. "I'm sure you've got something judgmental and hypocritical to say about that, so why don't you just spit it out."

"Why? Why would you start working for them?" Deran asked, tracking Adrian as he made his way to the liquor cabinet. "Did he threaten your brother or something?"

"Nobody threatened me, Deran," Adrian sighed, taking a swig of whiskey straight from the bottle. "He offered me a chance, I said yes."

"He's not your average asshole, Adrian. He's dangerous," There was a pleading tone to Deran's voice, as if he thought Adrian wasn’t fully aware of the severity of the situation. "Why the fuck would you voluntarily work for him if you had a choice?"

"Why do you still pull jobs with your family when you've got a bar that brings in legitimate income?"

"The bar doesn't make enough money to support me."

"Yes, it does," Adrian had seen the books for The Drop, the ones that weren't cooked, he knew exactly how much Deran was earning. "It just doesn't make enough to support the lifestyle you want."

"Is that what this is about, money?" Deran's face twisted in disgust. "You wanted a different _lifestyle_ so you decided working for the mafia was a good idea? I would've given you whatever you wanted."

"I don't want _**your**_ money," He was never going to put himself in the position to be dependent on someone else. "If I had gotten comfortable living off you and your money, then when shit went south, I wouldn’t have had a way to take care of myself.”

"You just assume shit would go south."

"It always does," Nothing had ever been smooth sailing with them. "It was always going to, and not just with us, but with anyone you or your brothers ever get involved with."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Deran scowled, setting his fork down on the still-full plate. "What, you think we're all too fucked up to make something like this work?"

"It's got nothing to do with how you are individually," Adrian was sure they could each make a relationship work if they distanced themselves from other aspects of their lives. "It's how you do things together. It's how you are to the people you're with when the walls are closing in."

"Will you stop fucking pussyfooting around and just tell me what the fuck--"

"So long as you guys are pulling jobs, the cops are always going to press the people closest to you," It was a consequence of the life they chose to live. "It's not a question of _**if**_ it's a question of _**when**_."

"I know that, Adrian," Deran mumbled, scrubbing a hand down his tired face. "And I know how we deal with it isn't fair."

"You _**handle**_ us, one way or another, even if we refuse to give the cops anything," There was almost no point to keeping their mouths shut when the Codys would disappear them anyway. "Smurf did it with Cath. You tried to do with me. Renn's going to confirm Craig's alibi one day, become a missing person the next."

"Renn doesn't know anything," Deran argued. "She knows what we do, but Craig doesn't...he doesn't tell her the kind of things I tell you."

"Yeah, well, I don't actually have anything the cops can use, not without proof to back it up, which I don't have," The cops hadn't asked him to testify to what he knew, they wanted him to gather evidence to use against the Codys. What he knew, what he could say, it meant nothing. "But that doesn't seem to matter to any of you."

"It matters to me.”

"Anyone you ever get involved with, no matter how loyal they are to you, you will eventually make disappear," Things like loyalty and love, they didn't factor in at all. "You know that's how it's always going to end, but you let us get close anyway. You let _**me**_ get close."

"I'm sorry," Deran ducked his head, rubbing his bruised eyes. "It's...it's how Smurf... It was Smurf's way."

"You know why Smurf did things that way, right? It's the perfect way to isolate you. No one outside the family would ever be around long enough for you to make a real life with them," The only person Smurf wanted close to her boys was her. "She made it so you all would end up just like she did, bitter and alone."

"That's not h-how it's going to be," Deran claimed, voice cracking around the words. "That's not how I wanted it-- How I want it to be."

"How do _**you**_ want it to be, Deran?" Adrian had heard all of Deran's wants and needs over their lifetime together, he'd given into them with the small hope that one day he would get something besides pain in return. "Are you going to find someone else that'll look the other way to what you do? Someone you'll let see who you really are? Or will you just lie to the next guy? Pretend you're just a guy who owns a bar?"

"No. Not someone else," Deran swallowed, curling his arms around himself. "You're coming home. Right? That guy, your boss, he said so. He said he was sending you home."

"So?" Adrian's circumstances had changed, but things between he and Deran hadn't. "You made a choice, Deran. You don't get to take it back."

"Y-You said you…," Deran trailed off, unable to form the words. "And I-I told you that I meant it when I said it."

"You said you would leave with me," Adrian understood why Deran chose to stay, but he couldn't forget that it happened or let them pick up where they left off now that he could stay too. "You said we would start a new life together somewhere else, just like we always talked about when we were kids."

There were so many nights they had sat on the beach, watching the waves crash against the rocks, waxing poetic about running away one day. They'd just disappear into the night, taking only what they could carry on their backs. They would change their names, travel to some faraway place where no one knew who they really were. It was that idea, the dream of escaping their families and their pasts that got them through the darkest times of their lives.

"I knew you were never going to leave with me, Deran," He was far too reliant on his brothers to part from them, too set in his ways to change them. "I knew it the moment you said _**we**_ were going."

"I meant it when I said it. I didn't know I wasn't going until the car was there and it was time to go," Deran sniffled, brows knitted together in a frown. "W-Why are you so pissed at me for not going with you if you never thought I would go to begin with?"

"Because when we were standing on the pier with our bags, I thought you'd finally proved me wrong. I let myself believe for a few moments that you actually cared about me and all the promises you made," Adrian was angrier with himself for letting himself believe Deran would ever choose them. "It's a mistake I've made more times than I can count with you. It's not one I will let myself make again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next: Tommy and Jess contemplate taking drastic measures to get Adrian out of the organization. Ghost goes on the attack. Adrian confronts Jason. Pope and Tommy come face-to-face.


	4. We're On the Edge Right Now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd.
> 
> Chapter title comes from: [Lie by NF](https://youtu.be/0501BTnbrxg)  
Gif sets: [Talk](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/188139459606/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-talk-does-deran-want-to), [Ambulance](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/188332049271/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-jinx-loyalty-chapter), [Explanation](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/188146573631/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-explanation-you-know-i), [Rules](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/188310108786/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-rules-the-words-been-put), [The Game](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/188416685746/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-the-game-mommy-had-to), [Secrets](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/188234818197/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-secrets-loyalty)
> 
> Set during Power 6x04: Why is Tommy Still Alive.
> 
> *My math was more than a little off for whatever reason in the second to last scene, but I fixed it.

Adrian didn't sleep, even for a few moments, he didn’t know if he would ever be able to while there was guilt clawing at his chest and gnawing on his insides. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw 2-Bit and the explosion of blood as the bullet pierced his skin. After too long, 2-Bit's face would morph into Colby's, his body dropping to the floor of somewhere familiar to the both of them.

No amount of soap or scrubbing in the shower could wash away the unclean feeling his act of violence left him with. He looked in the mirror and the only visible marks on him were the freckles scattered over his pale flesh, but he could still feel the specks of 2-Bit's blood marring his skin. He could feel it just as he could see 2-Bit's reflection over his left shoulder in the mirror, and Colby's over his right.

He hadn't allowed himself to think too much on what he'd done to protect Deran or what Deran had done to protect him. He didn't talk about it, not that anyone would push him to. The people closest to his actions, Tommy and Deran, wouldn't understand his feelings of remorse if he tried to explain it to them, brutality was far too normalized to them.

It was easier to pretend he was okay with what he had done when he was surrounded by people, working with Tommy or his crew or even arguing with Deran. Keeping busy was the key to getting through it. If he could keep his mind on a task, he could ignore the ugliness settling into his soul.

When things got quiet in the early morning hours and his mind started whirring, he was tempted to wake Deran, to pick a fight about one thing or another to take his mind off the blood tattooed on his hands. Deran was only spared a rude awakening thanks to the message alert tone pinging on Adrian's phone and a knock at the front door. The message was a simple text beckoning him to Tommy's warehouse to help with the new shipment. The person behind the front door, however, had him flashing back to a meeting he had with Jason not long after he arrived in New York, _"He's the enforcer. If the family was trying to kill me, if that's a decision they made together, he would be the one coming after me."_

"Pope," Adrian didn't know whether to laugh hysterically or cry. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you are the last Cody who should be here."

"Thought that'd be Deran." Pope muttered, stepping around Adrian into the loft.

"Deran was here to send me away again," He hadn't said so specifically, not to Adrian at least, but Adrian didn't see any other reason for Deran to have made the trip. "Not kill me."

"I'm not here to kill you," Pope claimed, an indignant scowl taking up residence on his face. "I didn't come here to hurt you."

"I'm not the one you have to convince," Adrian was probably the only person who believed those words. "Did Deran tell you we were here?"

"He told Craig he got his ass kicked by your brother," Pope pinned Adrian with an accusing gaze, like he was the one who had put the beating on Deran. "Your phone was at Deran's place; your mom's address was in it. Went there, no one was home. Had Craig go through your phone again and he found this address, so..."

"So here you are," Adrian supposed he shouldn't have been surprised, once Deran had shown up, it was only a matter of time before one or both of his brothers came calling for him. "Deran's upstairs. I can get him for you, then you guys can go."

Adrian picked Deran's dufflebag off the floor, shoving Deran's bloodstained clothes and extra bandages into it for Pope to take. The sooner he got Deran's things together, got him up and around, the sooner he could get them all out of his brother's loft, and the better off they all would be.

"I want to talk to your brother," Pope declared, staring at the bag as if it were a foreign object. "And your boss."

"That's not gonna happen," If they were still in Oceanside, Adrian was sure his refusal would've been met with some sort of threat or posturing on Pope's part, but things were different in New York. Adrian was the one with brothers on his side, he was the one with the power to lob threats or just say 'no' to whatever bullshit the Codys thought they were entitled to. "You should take Deran home."

"Does he want to go home?"

"He's not safe here," Adrian dumped Deran's bag at Pope's feet. "Neither are you."

"We can take care of ourselves."

"Say that to me again after you've seen Deran's face," Adrian grumbled as the front door swung open, his mother, sister, and little niece crowding into the apartment. "What is this?"

"Is that how you greet your mother?" Kate tutted, pressing a wet kiss to his cheek. "My house is being fumigated. We're staying here."

"Okay," It wasn't Adrian's loft, who was he to say who could come and go? "Well, I was on my way out--"

"What the fuck is he doing here?" Jess zeroed in on Pope, leveling him with a glare that promised an asskicking of the highest order if he so much as flinched.

"He's here for his brother," Adrian figured that was something his sister could understand. "Just like you're here for me, right?"

"Right," Jess conceded, shifting her daughter on her hip. "Craig around too? Tommy would love to have the complete set."

"It's just me," Pope grunted, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "And Deran."

"Deran's asleep in that bedroom upstairs that Tommy put together for LaKeisha’s kid," Adrian said, grabbing his hoodie off the sofa. "Pope will get him up and then they'll be on their way out."

"No," Pope put his foot down, figuratively and literally. "I want to talk--"

"What you want doesn't matter to me or anyone else here, Pope. It's not happening," Adrian snapped, snatching the car keys out of his mother's hand. "I'll be back later, if anyone cares."

* * *

The first night Deran spent at the loft, Adrian had allowed him to sleep on the couch. He'd woken sometime in the night to see Adrian sitting on the floor beneath the windows, eyes locked on the door like he was afraid someone might burst in at any moment. Deran had climbed off the sofa hoping he wouldn't be turned away as he curled up beside Adrian on the floor, pillowing his head on the other man's thigh. Adrian didn't balk or rebuff him, just sunk his fingers into Deran's hair, caressing his scalp with blunt nails to loll him to sleep, the same way he'd done at home when Deran would come in late, weary and worn from a job.

They didn't talk about it the next morning and Deran didn't see Adrian most of the day, but he had taken the night’s show of affection as a sign that maybe things weren't as bad as they seemed. Of course, then Adrian had come back looking like he'd seen some shit and Deran couldn't leave well enough alone and they'd gotten into yet another fight. When Adrian had dismissed him to the upstairs bedroom that night after changing his bandages, he had that same look of betrayal that he had given Deran on the pier.

It was a look Deran knew well, it'd been sent his way a handful of times throughout their life together. The time that stood out the most wasn't after the beating or Dave or even that moment on the pier, it was in the aftermath of their junior prom in high school. It was the first time Deran thought he had really ruined things between them for good.

Things were different then, for everyone. Adrian was out of the closet, had been since the head cheerleader caught him bending over her swim-team captain boyfriend at a party just before their sophomore year-- although he'd come out to Deran and his family back in middle school. Deran, on the other hand, was still fully convinced he was straight, and the fact that watching his best friend lick his lips made his dick hard was just something he had to cope with. And that's what they were back then, best friends, as close as two people could be. They attached themselves to each other like an extra set of limbs, never more than a few feet apart at any given moment except when they had to go home to sleep and even then they could usually be caught sneaking out together or sneaking into each other's bedrooms.

The kids at school used to whisper about them, spread rumors about how they were secretly fucking. It didn't bother him as much then as it did when they got older. He used to play into it to make his classmates uncomfortable, draping himself all over Adrian during lunch or at assemblies, gesturing at him lewdly as they passed each other in hall on their way to class, being a general pain in the ass. He'd fuel the rumors then douse them with water in the form of a new girl on his arm, which is where prom came in.

Deran had put on the dumb tux, bought the tickets, and escorted the hottest girl in school to the stupid dance. His date spent the night whispering in his ear, making filthy promises for the hotel room after party that should have made his dick jump. He hadn't been as into her as she'd been to him but he'd still pulled her in close, palmed her ass through her dress, and told her exactly what he planned to do with her that night. He danced with her all of one time and then left her to her friends, before proceeding to get sloppy drunk off the flask he'd hidden in his pocket just for the occasion.

Adrian didn't go to prom, rolled his eyes at the very idea. He'd made plans with the older guy he was seeing at the time, some grease monkey asshole he'd met while scouring the junkyard for parts for the Wagoneer. Deran hated the guy, Adrian knew he hated the guy, but he also knew the dude was built like a linebacker who could kick Deran and his brothers' asses without breaking a sweat, which was why he wasn't afraid to bring him around. Deran maintained, to this day, that Adrian couldn't have really liked the guy, if he had, he wouldn't have left him when Deran's girl called from the dance ordering him to come pick Deran's ass up off the floor before he could embarrass her any further.

Adrian had shown up, apologized for Deran's behavior to any poor bastard he happened to interact with throughout the night, and peeled Deran off the girl he had attached himself too -- not his date. He flung Deran’s arm around his shoulders and dragged him out of the auditorium and into the car. They were about a mile from the school when Adrian told him to cut the drunk act bullshit, they were clear of his girl. He didn't seem mad, just mildly annoyed by Deran's antics.

They spent the rest of the night at the beach, sitting on the tailgate of the wagon, and polishing off a bottle of tequila Deran had stashed in the back under their surfing gear. He must have blacked out at some point because the next thing he knew he was waking up on the pavement in driveway at Smurf's house with a hangover, a bruised eye, scraped palms and knees, and no idea how he got there. Craig cleared things up for him as much he could, telling him Adrian had pulled up to the curb, honked his horn a few times to get one of them out of the house, and then pushed Deran's unconscious form out of the car and driven off without a word.

Deran had spent the rest of the weekend searching for Adrian at their favorite surf spots and being sent to voicemail when he'd call his cell. At school on Monday, Adrian avoided him in the halls, sat at least two rows away in the classes they shared, and gave Deran the cold shoulder at every attempt to talk. Deran had to corner him in the library at lunch just to get some fucking answers.

_"What do you want?" Adrian had asked him, shoving a book he'd been pretending to read back on the shelf. "You stalking me now or something?"_

_"I want to know what the fuck happened the other night," Deran pointed to the discoloration around his eye. "We get into it with some people or what?"_

_"__**We** _ _ got into it."_

_"We did?" And okay, yeah, he and Adrian had gotten into a couple brawls over the years, but it was all in good fun. "You don't have a mark on you."_

_"There isn't a mark on me," Adrian confirmed, hitching his backpack over his shoulder. "I'm not the one who ended up on my ass."_

_"Hey!" Deran grabbed the other boy by the arm. "What happened? Why did you hit me? I'm your best fucking friend."_

_"We're not friends," Adrian sneered, hot breath hitting Deran's face. "Right? That's what you said."_

_"Bullshit.” There was no fucking way he would have said something like that to _ _ **Adrian** _ _ of all people. “I-"_

_"That night at the beach," Adrian clarified, wrenching his arm out of Deran’s grip. "You looked at me and asked me why I couldn't be normal. You said we could _ _ **still be friends ** _ _if I was normal, so why couldn't I just be like the other guys and date girls?"_

It taken weeks of apologizing to get that_** look**_ off Adrian's face, longer to get him talking again, and in the end he did it by wearing him down. He'd shown up to places he knew Adrian would be, the beach or work or school. He followed Adrian around like a lost puppy begging for attention, all the while acting like nothing had changed between them. It was months before he managed to convince Adrian that he didn’t care if Adrian liked pussy or dick or both, they were still friends, best friends, just as they had been since they were toddlers.

All these years later, Deran wasn't sure if Adrian ever really trusted him the same way he had before that night at the beach. There was a hesitation when they spoke sometimes, like Adrian wasn't sure it was okay to tell Deran certain things about himself. And maybe that was it, maybe something stupid he’d said in high school was how they got here, with Adrian playing his cards so close to his chest that he wouldn’t even lay one down unless Deran was looking the other way.

* * *

Tommy had a feeling it was going to be a good day. He had a new shipment coming in from Jason. His primeras had shown up at the warehouse on time and weren’t bitching each other out. Yeah, it was going to be a good fucking day.

"So thanks to some extracurricular shit that we done for the connect, we getting fed with a fat fucking shipment. Serbs got this Greek outfit bringing the shit in through the Red Hook terminal," Tommy's announcement was met with a round of hoots and hollers from his men who were ready to get paid. "I guess they some prickly motherfuckers, so we can't be late. Y'all know the drill--"

"I don't know the drill," Adrian interrupted, leaning against a yellow support column. "I've never done this kind of pickup with you guys."

"And you shouldn't be now," Spanky remarked scornfully. "Bitchass killed 2-Bit."

"And now we down a man, so Adrian's filling in until we find a replacement," Tommy would prefer to keep his brother out of it, but he'd promised to show him the ropes before he returned to California. "The drill is this, we all roll in separate cars so if any shit goes down, the product ain't all in one place."

"Yo, boss, I don't know if we gonna be able to do shit today. The block is crawling with assholes from the gas company saying some shit about a leak," Grim revealed, standing in the open doorway, peering out into the street. "They're not letting motherfuckers in or out."

"So what you saying, we trapped in here?" Tommy didn't like the sound of that with or without product on the line. "We got deliveries to make!"

"What about the ambulance?" Roberto, one of Tommy's primeras interjected in, motioning toward the vehicle parked in the back of the warehouse. "They gotta let that through, right?"

"We only got the one so it puts all our eggs in one basket, but it's all we got," Tommy didn't see any other option. "All right. I guess Adrian and me got this. You guys find a way to get the fuck out of here, call me for the hand off."

For once in their fucking lives, Tommy's primeras accepted their new orders without a complaint, taking out their phones to get in touch with their respective crews. He left them to it and led his brother across the warehouse to the parked ambulance where they slipped on the paramedic uniforms and climbed into the rig.

"Probably should have gotten rid of this thing after we handed Alicia off to Jason," Adrian mentioned as he fastened his seatbelt. "Guess it's a good thing we didn't, though."

"Yeah, it's coming in handy," Tommy nodded, trying to maneuver the ambulance out of the warehouse without running over one of his guys. "Let's hope these motherfuckers don't try to stop us."

The roadblock went up the entire city block, men and women in safety vests and hard hats putting up blockades and directing traffic to other directions. For a moment, Tommy wasn't sure they were going to be permitted to get any further than the alleyway outside the warehouse until he flicked on the sirens.

"Come on through!" A gas company worker shouted, moving a blockade out of the way and waving them through.

"I feel like motherfucking Moses," Tommy cackled, following the worker’s direction through the road block. "Let my people go, motherfucker! The fuck was Grim talking about, stuck in here?"

"Oh, before I forget, Mom, Jess, and the baby are at your loft," Adrian said, shooting Tommy’s hopes of a good day right in the fucking foot. "Mom's place is being fumigated or something."

"Shit, I guess 'Keisha, Cash, and me ain't staying there this weekend," Tommy preferred his place to 'Keisha's, but he didn't think she was ready for a close-quarters sleepover with his entire family. "You got your boy locked up there too, don't ya?"

"We agreed Deran was off limits," Adrian reminded him. "He'll be gone by tonight. Let's just leave it at that."

"You sure about that?"

_ **"Tommy."** _

"All right, I'll drop it."

"Thank you," Adrian relaxed into his seat, gazing out the windshield. "We're clear of the road block."

"Yeah. You know, you had me trippin' yesterday with that ambulance getting hit by a truck shit," Tommy had spent the day white-knuckling the steering wheel thanks to his brother's apparent need to share that story. "I thought for sure we was gettin' slammed."

"You have to say that when we're back in the ambulance?"

Any clever retort Tommy had died on his lips as thousands of pounds of steel crashed into the side of their rig, crunching the door against his leg. The impact propelled them off the road, ramming the ambulance into a metal dumpster at the curb. The force knocked Tommy and Adrian around the cab like they were in some kind of warped pinball machine until finally smacking their heads against the hard surfaces directly in front of them.

"Fuck!" Tommy yelped, peeling his face off the steering wheel. "What the fucking fuck?!"

"Oh," Adrian groaned, bracing his arms against the dashboard to lever himself up. "This make me the jinx or you?"

"You," Tommy was not taking responsibility for their current circumstances when his brother had brought up the stupid ambulance crash thing a whole day before he did. "Definitely you."

"That's d-debatable," Adrian coughed as he tried, uselessly, to work the door handle. "I'm stuck. My doors pinned against this dumpster. Can't get out."

"Yeah, I think mine is too," Tommy grunted, glancing out his window to see what was blocking him and getting an eyeful of Ghost standing in the road with his gun drawn. "Look out!"

He grabbed his brother by the shirt collar and yanked him down as bullets shattered the driver-side window, spraying glass into the cab. Tommy kept a firm grip on his brother, making sure he kept his head down until there was a pause in the gunfire.

"You think he's done?" Adrian asked, warily lifting his head to check. "N-No, I think he’s just reloading."

"I don't care, we getting the fuck out of here," Tommy turned the key in the ignition, hearing the ambulance engine grind. "Fuck. Come on."

"Tommy, come on," Adrian urged him to get things going, looking over him and out the window. "He's getting back in the SUV. What if he hits us again? Come on!"

"I got it! I got it!" Tommy tried the engine again, clapping his hands together when it started. "Here we go!"

He put the ambulance in reverse and slammed his foot on the gas, freeing them from where they were trapped between dumpsters and Ghost’s truck. Tommy could see Ghost preparing to ram them for a second time, and he shifted the ambulance into drive and put his foot down hard, sticking his hand out of the broken window to give Ghost the finger.

"Fuck you, Ghost!" Tommy shouted as they sped off down the street. "Yo, A, you hit?"

"No," Adrian sagged against door, tugging at his seatbelt to take pressure off his sternum. "Guess the war with Jamie is still on."

"Fuck, that motherfucker."

* * *

Pope let Deran mope for as long as he could stand the silent judgmental glares from the three Dolan-Egan women, the most unwarranted one coming from the toddler. He'd made his way up the stairs when their backs were turned, slipping in to the dark bedroom his brother had hidden himself away in.

"Deran," Pope flipped on the light and found his brother sprawled out on the bed, his battered face staring up at the ceiling. "Shit."

"Pope," Deran mumbled, wiping sleep from his eyes, flinching when he touched one of his numerous bruises. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"I came for you," He leaned down and grabbed his brother by the chin, inspecting the damage. "Adrian's brother do this?"

"I'm fine," Deran jerked out of Pope's hold. "It's nothing."

"It's not nothing," Pope snapped, feeling whatever protective brother instincts he had go into overdrive. "I'm going to kill him."

"No," Deran shook his head. "It was sort of...justified."

"You're not the one who put the hit out on Adrian."

"It wasn't about the hit," Deran muttered, pushing himself up until he was sitting against the headboard. "It was old shit. Something I did to Adrian, something I had you do to Adrian."

"I never did anything to Adrian," The only interactions Pope had with Adrian in recent years was to ask where Deran was and the odd family dinner at Smurf's.

"That guy I asked you to go after a few years ago, you know, when I asked you to do something without asking me why so I would come home, that guy was a guy Adrian was seeing," Deran confessed, ducking his head in shame. "They started seeing each other after I beat Adrian up, put him in the hospital."

"What did Adrian do to you to deserve that?"

"He gave me a blowjob. J walked in on it. Tommy's right, J wouldn't have been able to tell from gap in the door that I wasn't with a girl, but I..." Deran clenched his eyes shut, taking a deep breath. "I...I panicked, said Adrian was just some guy trying to steal my wallet. I started kicking him, told J to get in on it and he did. Then we left him there, unconscious, bleeding on the floor in the public restrooms at the beach."

"Jesus, Deran," Pope could imagine his brother had done some questionable shit to keep the family from finding out he was gay before he was ready, but he didn't think he'd pull something like that on his best friend. "So having me throw that guy off the boat, that was because you were jealous?"

"Adrian's mine, everybody knows that, even before we were together, before I was out, they knew he belonged to me," Deran growled, eyes flashing. "That guy, Dave, he was...he should have known better."

"So you were jealous," And possessive, two traits he picked up from their mother. "Deran, I know you used to pull this kind of crap when you were a kid, getting me and Craig to scare off people you thought were getting too close to Adrian, but we always thought it was because you were scared of losing your best friend."

"I was."

"You're too old to be pulling that kind of shit now, it's pathetic," Pope pulled no punches. "I mean, w-what are you even doing here? You had your chance to leave with him, you didn't go. So why are you here now?"

"Just because I didn't go doesn't mean I don't still..." Deran trailed off, unable to form the words. "After I realized he was still in the country, that his deal had been put back on the table, I knew it was only a matter of time before you guys did too. I-I had to warn him."

"You had to warn him about us?" Pope tilted his head to the side. "Deran, when Smurf told me Adrian was giving the cops information on us, I didn't believe her. I wasn't going to make the same mistake I made with Cath on him."

"You put a hit out on him."

"Craig and I had nothing to do with it," Although given their family history, Pope could see why his brother wouldn't believe that. "That's another part of the reason I'm here. I want to talk to Adrian's brother and his boss about the hit, let them know that wasn’t us. Once that's done, I'm going to take you home."

"I can't go," Deran tangled his hands into the blanket covering his lap. "Adrian's boss, he said he was going to send Adrian back to Oceanside t-to run things there."

"Okay," That only made Pope wonder exactly how deep Adrian was with Serbians. "And?"

"When I told him I couldn't go to Indonesia, I was okay with him being angry and hating me, because I wouldn't have to see it. I could pretend that he was however I wanted him to be at any given moment," Deran admitted, curling his legs up to his chest. "If he's coming home, I can't...he can't...we can't be that close and not be…us."

"Look, I don't know half of what’s gone on between you and Adrian," Given what Pope had been made privy to in the last ten minutes, he wasn't sure he wanted to know more. "But it's obvious he doesn't trust you. And you are never going to trust us, your family, around him again--"

"I can't leave things the way they are, not if he's coming home," Deran said, looking down at his hands, unable to meet Pope's eye. "It's not about getting back together, not yet. I just don't want to leave things the way they are."

"So you're going to, what, stay here, and wear him down until he forgives you?"

"It's worked since we were kids."

"Okay," Pope couldn't really argue with his logic. "I can’t leave until I talk to his brother and his boss. Anything I need to know about them?"

"His boss only came around once, but pretty much ignored me," Deran glowered, affronted by the man's behavior. "Tommy, I think you guys met when we were little."

"That was a long time ago, Deran."

“He’s kind of like a weird combination of you and Craig.”

* * *

All Adrian wanted a conversation, a simple, no nonsense discussion with Jamie about his vendetta against Tommy to determine what it would take to settle things between them before one of them actually succeeded in killing the other. Running into Jason in his men at Truth was never part of the plan, luckily, Adrian was able to spot them and duck into the hallway before they could catch sight of him, remaining just close enough to eavesdrop on Jason and Jamie's conversation.

_"I would love to know how you managed to get municipal services to help you carry out the hit on Tommy. Did you think I wouldn't find out? Tommy was..."_ Jason chuckled to himself. _"He was very upset. He actually thought that I somehow set him up."_

_"Well played,"_ Jamie praised the other man's tactics. _"I fell for the bait you set, but I didn't kill him."_

_"No, no, you didn't,"_ Jason acknowledged, inhaling deeply. _"But you did confirm for me exactly what I thought about you. You possess a certain skill set that makes you uniquely qualified for our line of business."_

_"Your line of business?"_

_"Think about it. If you follow through with your instinct, kill Tommy, and become my distro, all your problems will be solved,"_ Jason drawled, pointing out how Jamie could benefit from Tommy's death. _"You know I'm right, James. Hmm? No more feud with Tommy, no more cash flow issues."_

"Then he'll have a new set of problems and feuds," Adrian said as he stepped in from the hall, letting his presence be known. "Unless you're going to have him kill me too, but then you lose your New York and SoCal distros in one fell swoop."

"Adrian, what the..." Jamie's gaze flickered between Jason and Adrian. "What are you doing here?"

"You just tried to gun down our brother," Adrian retorted, lumbering across the room. "What do you think I'm doing here?"

"Interrupting a private conversation," Jason chastised him. "I'm not sure why, but I expect better from you."

"And I expected someone of your stature to be smarter," Adrian countered, standing between the men with his back to Jamie. "Trying to pit Tommy and _**Ghost **_against each other will only end badly for _**you**_."

"Are you trying to warn me of an impending coup?" Jason raised a brow, eyeing Jamie over Adrian's shoulder. "That's a very serious accusation."

"I'm trying to save us all a lot of aggravation down the line," Adrian explained, mirroring Jason’s movements to keep his attention on him instead of Jamie. "The only reason they've gotten this far in the business is because they worked together. When they work alone, they don't move, they don't rise, they don’t fall, they don't expand. You understand?"

"You're saying I should have them work together then?"

"I'm out of the game. I'm not working with Tommy, and I'm not going to kill him to take his place," Jamie said as clearly and concisely as he could manage through gritted teeth. "You can tell me Tommy's pickups and drops for the next 10 years-- fuck it, make it 20. I'm not gonna make another move on him, Jason. Okay? It's not the man I want to be. So unless you're gonna put a bullet in my head in the middle of my club, we're finished here, my friend."

"You force them to work together, they'll band together to work against you," Adrian warned him, ignoring Jamie's outburst. "Your best course of action is to leave Ghost alone, let him do the legitimate life thing. Stick with Tommy, he might be a pain in the ass at times, but he'll earn for you. He's more than proven himself to you."

"You know, when Tommy suggests something to me, he always comes off a tad childish, making excuses for himself first and the suggestion second. Ghost, he’s so high on himself that everything that comes out of his mouth sounds like an order," Jason clucked, tsking their behavior. "You, Adrian, your suggestions sound like advice, and while it favors your brother, I still get the feeling it's based on some sort of logic."

"It is," While the entire situation was very personal to Adrian, with his brothers and himself on the line, he knew Jason responded better to a logical argument than he did an emotional one. "And they are both my brothers."

"So they are," Jason grinned, appearing equal parts menacing and amused. "I've got it now, by the way. I've got you now. You're the referee, the arbiter, the mediator."

"Pardon?"

"I've been trying to figure out what role you played here," Jason gestured to Ghost and then his own men. "What place did you hold in your brothers’ world? What place could you hold in my world?"

"He doesn't have a place in that world," Jamie interjected, a pinched look on his face. "He’s just a kid, a surfer."

"What did you come here for today, Adrian?" Jason asked curiously. "Ghost tried to kill you and Tommy this morning, but I don't think you came here to return the favor."

"I wanted to parley, I guess," Adrian shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Talk to Jamie, see what had to be done to bury the hatchet between him and Tommy."

"When I told you to get me Oceanside, you chose the option, as risky as it was, that avoided bloodshed," Jason said, notes of approval in his tone. "You've downplayed the threat of your boyfriend's family to protect them, even though they put a hit out on you--"

"They did what?" Jamie rounded on Adrian, fixing him with a look of worry and concern. "Why the fuck didn't you tell me?"

"They're not a threat," Adrian was getting tired of having to repeat that. "They're-- No. No, I'm not having this conversation again."

"And now you're here to parley with the man tried to kill you and your brother," Jason nodded to Jamie. "Your brothers use their guns to resolve conflict in a quick and timely fashion."

"I don't like guns," Adrian liked them even less now that he'd used one to take a life. "Or violence."

"Violence isn't always the best option, even in our line of work, you understand that," Jason hummed, studying Adrian like he was some sort of science experiment. "I think I have a new job for you. It might keep you on the road -- or, in the sky, rather. You like to travel, don't you?"

"Um," Adrian blinked owlishly, unsure of what was happening. "Why?"

"I'll take that as a yes," Jason smiled, pleased with the development. "Come with me. We'll go over the particulars at my office."

"I don't...." Adrian faltered, rubbing a hand over the nape of his neck. "I haven't even started my other new job yet."

"And now you won't have to."

"Hey, no, Jason, you don't have to take him anywhere," Jamie wrapped his fingers around Adrian's bicep. "You can talk about whatever you want to talk about right here."

"It's okay, Jamie," Adrian understood Jason, the man was dangerous, but he wasn’t afraid of him. "I'll call you later. Okay?"

"No, I will _**see**_ you later."

* * *

Initially, Tommy had no intention of visiting the loft once he knew his mother had taken up temporary residence there. However, since his little brother had disappeared on his ass after they had handed off the product to the primeras, Tommy decided it was probably best to check in on him after the whole getting shot at thing earlier.

"Hey, Tommy, wait," Jess was on him before he even made if through the front door. "Your niece is here, she's upstairs taking a nap with Mom, but still so no bloodshed."

"Relax, I already know Adrian's harboring his boyfriend here," He wasn't looking to have another go at the kid. "I ain't here for him. I was seeing if Adrian came back here. He's not answering his phone or nothin'."

"Adrian's not here," Jess kept herself in front of him, walking backwards as he walked further into the apartment. "Someone else is."

"Okay?" Tommy glanced around her, noticing a stranger lurking beside the couch next to Deran. "Who the fuck are you?"

"This is, um, Pope," Jess introduced the pair as she stepped out of the way, taking herself out of the line of fire. "Deran's oldest brother."

"Pope," Tommy tested the name on his tongue, recognizing why it sounded familiar. "The enforcer. The one the family would send to kill Adrian."

Tommy had half a mind to draw his gun, but he wanted to handle things hand-to-hand. He could see the other man's lips moving as he advanced on him, but the words were dead air in Tommy's ears. The words didn't fucking matter anyhow, the only thing that mattered was protecting his family and the only way to do that was to eliminate the threat.

_Kill. Protect. Kill._ It played in his mind over and over like a fucking mantra.

The asshole's lips stopped moving when his self-preservation instincts kicked in and he threw a punch at Tommy. The move could've been seen a mile off, Tommy easily dodged it, ducking down and coming back up to snag the douchebag around the shoulders, slamming him onto the floor. Once he had him on the ropes, he didn't let up, grabbing a handful of the motherfucker's shirt to lift his upper body off the floor and sending fist after fist into his face, barely registering the blows he was receiving in return.

The so-called enforcer was a fighter, sure, but a bought and paid for one, like he only learned to piss off or please mommy and daddy. Tommy fought to survive, since he was a little kid he'd been fighting just to make it to the next hour, the next day. And when he was fighting for his family, forget about it, there was no fucking stopping him, of course someone always tried.

Hands pulled at him, tried to pull him off the motherfucker who came into his home and threatened his family. Not Jess's hands, Tommy could see her out of the corner of his eyes, standing at the bottom of the steps in case the commotion startled their mother or her daughter. Deran's hands, then, Tommy's mind supplied, and he shoved his elbow back, landing a powerful blow to the guy’s ribs and sending him sprawling over the coffee table. Tommy only had a moment to refocus his attention on Pope before dark arms grappled him from behind, encircling his neck, forcibly pulling him up and away from his enemy.

"Ghost!" He slammed his head back, knocking the other man in the nose. "What the fuck?!"

"Don't what the fuck me. What the fuck you?!" Ghost yelled, released Tommy and pressing his fingers to his nose, inspecting it for a break. "You get little brother involved in our shit?"

"What?" Tommy shook his head, trying to clear the fog from his mind to understand whatever the hell Ghost was trying to say to. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Adrian rolled up on Jason at Truth today," Ghost was in Tommy’s face, toe-to-toe, not giving him an inch of space. "See, I knew Adrian knew Jason, one of Jason's guys came for him the day I told him I killed you."

"You mean the day he kicked your ass?" Tommy snickered, rolling his shoulders to work out the kinks his short brawl had left him with—he wasn’t as young as he used to be, sue him.

"I allowed him to take his grief out on me, there was no winner," Ghost corrected, adjusting the lapels on his suit jacket. "The way he and Jason were talking, it was pretty fucking clear that they are working together. Now, why the fuck would you get little brother involved in your business?"

"I didn't--"

"We didn't do the shit we did to make it a goddamn family business, Tommy," Ghost fumed, slapping his hands together in front of Tommy’s face. "We did it to keep the kids out of this shit, so they didn't have to grow up like we did. That wasn't just for Tariq and R-Raina and Yasmine. It was for Jess and Adrian too."

"I just learned about this shit myself, Ghost," Tommy was not taking responsibility for his brother's recent career choices. "Jason's had him claiming territory for him the last couple months. Promoted him to LA/San Diego distro or some shit like fucking yesterday."

"He may have been the SoCal distro for a minute, but he just talked himself into another promotion this afternoon," Ghost huffed, wringing his hands and pacing the length of the loft. "I mean, w-w-what the fuck is he thinking?

"I actually feel a little better knowing we're all in the dark here," Deran muttered sardonically as he helped his brother off the floor. "It wasn't just me he was keeping shit from."

"Shut up!" Tommy and Ghost shouted at their brother's ex.

"And w-what the fuck you got going here?" Ghost waved a hand toward the Cody brothers. "The fuck is this?"

"They followed Adrian from Oceanside," Jess responded, crossing her arms over her chest. "They want him dead."

"No, we don't," Pope shot the woman a sharp glare. "Stop saying that."

"Oh, yeah, Jason mentioned that too," Ghost gave the brothers a quick once-over, seeming less than impressed by what he found. "Why are they still alive?"

"Well, I was trying to kill that one," Tommy pointed to Pope. "But you fucking stopped me."

"Fuck, sorry," Ghost apologized. "Well, shit, what do you want to do about it?"

"Adrian and I sort of have an agreement about that one," Tommy nodded to Deran. "But he ain’t say shit about the other one."

"I didn't make any kind of agreement with Adrian about either of 'em," Ghost noted, slipping off his suit jacket and draping it neatly over the arm of the couch. "So, I'll take the ex. You finish up with-- who is that, one of his brothers?"

"Yeah, Poppy or Potsy or some shit," Tommy confirmed, rolling up his sleeves, ready for another row. "All right, let's do this."

"Wait. Wait, wait!" Deran held up his hands in defense or, if he was smart, surrender. "Doesn't it bother you that Adrian didn't tell any of us what he was doing with the drugs or--"

"Adrian’s doing drugs?"

"What? No. I mean—Well. Uh. I mean, yeah, he was doing coke while he was on the circuit to offset the jetlag, but I think he quit. I haven't seen him do any," Deran rambled, squinting his eyes as he tried to get his train of thought back on track. "That Jason guy is a drug kingpin or whatever, right? That's the drugs I meant. He didn't tell anyone he was working with Jason. All of us, his family--"

"You're not his fucking family," Jess shut that shit right the hell down. "You lost the right to even think about calling him that."

"He didn't tell any of us he was working with Jason," Deran carried on, taking a few cautionary steps back until he was standing safely behind his brother. "We all just found out recently and not because he wanted us to know, right?"

"Yeah, and we'll get to the bottom of that," Tommy already had a plan to confront his brother, it involved cornering him and not letting him leave until he spilled his guts. "What the fuck's that got to do with you?"

"The sooner you get to the bottom of shit the better, right?" Deran looked between Tommy and Ghost, avoiding Jess’s steely glare at all costs. "He's not going to be in a very talkative mood if you kill me."

"He's got a point," Ghost sighed, resting his hands on his hips. "Okay, so we talk to Adrian first, and then deal with these motherfuckers."

"Yeah, all right."

* * *

Adrian’s private meeting with Jason left him feeling drained, as if the lack of sleep and constant barrage of bullshit hadn't left him exhausted enough as it was. The only thing he wanted to do was go back to the loft, get Deran and Pope the fuck out of town before Tommy did a drop by, and then take a nap for like a week. Of course, the universe, like his family, apparently, conspired to shit all over that idea.

Crossing the threshold into the loft was a bit like crossing into an alternate universe. His brothers, his sister, his mother, Deran and Pope were all seated around the living room, waiting for him it seemed, with identical looks of half-baked concern and an aura of "we know better than you" surrounding them. All they needed was a banner with big bold letters reading **INTERVENTION** to complete the picture.

"Okay," He would have retreated right back out the door if he didn't think one of them would tackle him. "What now?"

"You've been keeping a lot of secrets from all of us," Jess started, folding her hands together on her lap. "We just want to know why."

"Why?" Adrian couldn't do much with just '_why_'. "Why what?"

"Why would you start working for Jason, for one," Jamie prompted him. "Deran mentioned you told him Jason didn't threaten you."

"He didn't," Well, he hadn't used threats to convince Adrian to work with him, but had thrown a few around in the time since then. "He asked me if I wanted to make some money. I did. End of story."

"No, not end of story," Tommy disagreed, nostrils flaring. "That doesn't explain shit."

"You've been lying all of us for months," Deran uttered the same words he had outside Adrian's sister's house after Adrian finally told him what was going on. "Lying to me."

"Right, because you-- _**all of you**_ are such a pillars of honesty," Adrian would have rolled his eyes if he had the energy. "You want me to say I'm sorry? I'm sorry."

"A reason is what we're looking for, baby," His mom chimed in, kicked back on the sofa with what looked like a bloody Mary in her hands. "Just tell us how or why or who the fuck got you wrapped up in the garbage you’re wrapped up in."

"I don't owe any one of you an explanation," Adrian said calmly, resentful that he even had to listen to the line of questioning. "It is my life; it is my choice what I do with it."

"Except when you're living with someone in a permanent kind of way," Deran grunted, shifting uncomfortably on the sofa cushion. "It wasn't just your life, it was ours."

"If I had to leave the room in what’s supposed to be _**our**_ house every time one of _**your**_ brothers came over so I didn't hear about whatever job you were planning to pull, then it wasn't our life anymore than it was our house." Adrian had referred to Deran’s home as theirs, wished for it to be true, but in his heart he knew it never would be with things the way they were. "It was all yours, Deran. Your house, your bar, your family, your life, I was just living in it."

"When your choices affect the people in your life, then they deserve an explanation," Pope reasoned, dark eyes boring into Adrian like he was some kind of bug he’d like to crush under his shoe. “Your choices brought shit down on all of us.”

"You talking about Pearce? He would have questioned me about Deran regardless of my case with the DEA. My case gave him a way to threaten me, that’s it," Adrian was not the reason Pearce was looking at the Codys, he had caught their scent years before Adrian's name was whispered in his ear. "He didn't come after you because of me. He screwed me over because of my relationship to your family. Nothing happened to you. I was willing to do fifteen years to make sure of it. But if you're still looking for a rat to blame all your troubles on, Pope, I'd look a little closer to home."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"Heard your girlfriend ratted out her own brother for a free ride out of prison," Adrian had people in Oceanside, ones with their ears on the ground listening for useful information. "Now, she's living with a known criminal, an ex-con -- a clear violation of her parole. And you put her on lockdown at Smurf's last party, right, ‘cause she was using again? Her piss wouldn't have tested clean for her PO, yet she's still free as a bird. That doesn’t seem suspicious to you?"

"What? What the fuck, Pope?" Deran's eyes widened as he turned on his brother. "She was Julia's best friend. They got picked up together all the time. You don't think the cops-- you don't think _**Pearce**_ talked to her about us?"

"I'm not talking with you about that in front of these people," Pope glowered at Adrian's family. "He's fucking deflecting, Deran."

"Not deflecting, just making a point," Every single person in the Codys orbit had motive to rat on them, Adrian was just an easy target to pin it all on. "You know, I'm not entirely sure why either of you think you have a place in this conversation. This is about business. I don't insert myself into the business side of your life, I know better than that."

"Because we care about you," Deran murmured, voice barely above a whisper. "_**I**_ care about you."

"You're right, you don't owe these shitheads anything," His mom gave the Cody brothers the cold shoulder. "The rest of us, you've got some explaining to do, my baby."

"How is it when one of you does something...questionable, I'm supposed to be forgiving and supportive," Adrian had spent a lifetime looking the other way, tamping down his own emotions to help them get right with whatever it was they had done to themselves or someone else or even to him. "But when I do something you don't like, you climb up on your imaginary pedestals of moral superiority--"

"What have we done that you find so reprehensible?" Tommy asked, an innocent sort of curiosity painting his features, as if he was honestly clueless as to the kind of life he led. "I mean, really?"

"Tommy, the guy sitting a few feet to your left hit us with a truck and took shots at us just a few hours ago, are you going to pretend you have no idea why?" Adrian challenged his brother to feign ignorance. "Or how about what you did to Deran's face? I told you to leave him alone, you went after him anyway. Now look at him."

"He was that ugly before I got to him," Tommy argued, glancing at the younger Cody. "Actually, I think that's an improvement."

"Enough!" Jess squalled, rocketing off the couch. "No more bullshit, Adrian. No more deflection or segues or what the hell ever. Just give us a straight fucking answer and we will leave you the hell alone about it."

"You think there's a straight answer here?" Adrian croaked, feeling what little fight he had in him leave his body. "What, do you think I just woke up one morning and decided to completely blow up my life?"

"Well, yeah, kind of," Tommy admitted, scratching the side of his head. "What the fuck else we supposed to think when you don't tell us shit?"

"If you're looking for some big explanation about how I got here or why, I'm sorry, I don't have one," Adrian confessed, feeling tears of frustration burn his eyes. "I don't have a reason to give you, I'm sorry."

"We're not looking for your apologies," Jamie brushed off any Adrian had to offer. "You have to give us something, little brother, something to help us understand."

"You know, I put every dime I had, my blood and sweat into the shop, and it took me one night to decide to sell it. I enrolled at UCSD because Jess left the brochure at my place. I went on the surf tour after reading an email about it," They were not decisions or choices he wrestled with or lost sleep over. "And when Jason approached me about working for him, I just said yes. I didn't think about the risks or the consequences. I didn't think about any of it. I just did it."

"You didn’t think," Tommy raised a brow. “That’s what you’re going with?”

"It's all I've got," Adrian took a shaky breath and headed for the door. "I'm glad you all could put aside your differences to tell me what a fuck-up I am."

* * *

Charlie started crying almost has soon as Adrian had left the loft, Tommy figured she could sense all the tension in the apartment. He took upon himself to tend to her in the upstairs bedroom, hoping comforting the toddler would help rid him of the feelings of uneasiness that had settled over him.

"Hey sweetheart," He cooed softly, lifting the toddler out of the playpen she'd been napping in. "All that shit downstairs too much for you, huh? I'm sorry."

"Please don't swear in front of my kid," Jess chided him as she joined them. "We need to talk about Adrian."

"I think we've all done enough talking," Tommy was all talked out on the subject, but he knew his sister well enough to know she wasn’t going to give him a choice. "All right, what?"

"You have to get him out of this stuff with Jason," Jess said, raking her hands through her hair anxiously. "You heard him, he wasn't thinking when agreed to work for Jason. He's not invested in it, it's just something to do. You give him a way out, he'll take it."

"No, he won't, not unless I give him an alternative," Their brother dropped one thing to pick up another, the shop for college, college for the surf tour, the surf tour for the drug game. "The kid doesn't know how to be still. He'll need something else to do."

"We will find him something else to do," Jess wasn’t concerned about what their brother would do later, just what he was doing now. "We just have to get him out of all this, Tommy, before he starts liking it, like you do. I mean, _**can **_you get him out?"

"I can try," It wouldn't be as simple as asking Jason to release Adrian from whatever verbal agreement they had. "You know, the other night, Ghost asked me to team up, to help him kill Jason so we wouldn't have to keep paying him to stay alive."

"You said no."

"It was the way he asked, all smarmy, like he knew best," Claiming that he was always better at the game than Tommy definitely struck a nerve. "But to get little brother out, I think we can find some common ground."

"Have to get Adrian on board with leaving the business first," Jess determined, trying to come up with some kind of game plan. "The way his head is right now, trying to force him out could push him away. We could lose him, and he's already so far away..."

"We'll get him back," Tommy promised, balancing his niece on one arm and wrapping the other around his sister. "It's all right. We'll get him sorted."

"He's just so lost, Tommy, has been for a long time, and I don't even know when it started or why," Jess sniveled, resting her head on his shoulder. "And every time I think he's on the right track, he just veers off course again."

"He's gonna be fine," Tommy assured her, checking his watch for the time. "Shit, sis, I gotta go meet Vincent, my Italian contact, see if I can unload some of my product on his crew."

"Give me my girl," Jess took her daughter from her brother, cradling her close to her chest. "Hey, um, what do you want me to do about Deran and Pope?"

"Don't let them go anywhere. I ain't done with them yet."

* * *

The problem with Queens was that even with as much time as Adrian had spent there growing up, he didn't really have many places to go besides Tommy's loft or his mom's house. Most of the friends he'd made there over the years were either dead, in jail, or just gone. Anyone who happened to still be around would want to talk, catch up on old times, and Adrian was done talking. He was content to just wander the city as the sun was setting.

He used to do that as a kid, sneak out of the house in the middle of the night to roam the streets of Oceanside. His dad never cared so long as the cops didn't bring him home and he didn't get killed or kidnapped or something. Jess was the one who got upset about it, always had a lecture prepared when he traipsed back into the house first thing in the morning.

Queens didn't have the same kind of freedom Oceanside provided. Kate, like his father, never gave two fucks where he was, he could come and go as he pleased as soon as he could walk, as long as he came back alive. Tommy, on the other hand, he knew the streets far too well to let Adrian run around on his own.

Tommy used to take Adrian with him wherever he went, might as well have had a leash on him for as close as he kept him. Flop houses, stash houses, drug buys and sells, and more often than not, some random chick's house where Adrian would have to sit in the living room watching TV with the sound all the way up to drown out the sound of mattress springs and exaggerated moans. It didn't matter where Tommy had to be that day or what he was doing, Adrian had to go with him. Adrian was nearly an adult by the time he successfully learned to give Tommy the slip.

It was safe to say he preferred Oceanside to Queens. That wasn't to say Queens was an ugly place, it had an odd sort of beauty, especially in the winter when the snow was falling, but it couldn't beat the way the glow of the full moon danced on the surface of the sea. New York was in his blood, but California was his home, had been since the first time he dug his toes in the warm sand and dipped his feet in the Pacific Ocean.

Adrian had only been back in Queens a few days, but was already itching to leave. He wanted to go _**home**_, wherever that was now. He wanted to pick up his truck from Deran's house, park on the beach, and let the sounds of the waves quiet his mind.

He could go if he wanted to. No one would stop him, no one was out looking for him, they were all back in their separate corners, waiting for him to run to them , cough up the answers they wanted and beg for their help, as if that was something he had ever done in his entire life. Adrian wasn't the ask for help type, not because he was prideful or whatever, but because a good lot of the people in his life had a bloody way of solving problems and Adrian didn't want blood on his name-- well, anymore blood.

He kept things to himself, handled his own problems, so the people closest to him didn't go around him to settle it themselves in a way that could blow back on every single one of them. The only person Adrian was willing to put at risk was himself. With every new person who was brought in on his secrets, he had to extend the blast radius, adjust for the potential fallout.

He made a mistake with Deran, he understood that now, he didn't account for threats against the Codys when he agreed to move in with Deran. He had started working for Jason before he and Deran had even gotten back together, at a time when anyone who could have had a beef with the Codys had nothing to do with him, and vice versa. He should have adjusted the threat matrix when he and Deran had begun looking at houses, but he hadn't, and that was on him.

Of course, adjusting things to fit the Codys growing list of enemies wouldn't have changed how the situation turned out. So long as he and Deran were in each other's lives, the cops would use them to target one another. The only way to avoid that was to somehow keep their relationship far more private than they had to prevent the police from figuring out how much they meant to each other.

He still wondered who it was that connected the dots between him and Deran to Pearce and Livengood. They weren't on social media, they weren't Facebook official or anything like that. They didn't practice PDA, anyone who saw them in public together would assume they were two friends hanging out. Unless the cops had someone watching their house, someone had to have told them. He supposed it didn't matter now, the damage had been done.

Truth be told, despite what Deran might have thought, the damage to their relationship wasn't new, it had been there for a decade, maybe longer. It started with little slivers that turned into large cracks until they inevitably shattered to pieces on the floor. Adrian never imagined in their time together that he would be the one deliver the last devastating blow; history led him to believe that would be Deran's role.

As much as he loved Deran, part of him knew that this might very well be it for them. It was a thought that had crossed his mind before, after Dave, after the beating, after Belize. It hadn't been true in any of those instances, but it probably should have been. Maybe if they had just let things die between them when the warning signs were lit up like billboards, there wouldn't be so much anguish and anger in their hearts now.

He knew the best thing for them would be to let go of each other now, to walk away and mourn the loss without doing further damage to each other, but it was easier said than done. Their hearts were still in it. They still loved each other and were past the point of denying it.

It wasn't as if they hadn't walk away from each other before, their blowout at Real Surf had separated them for months, longer than they had ever been apart since they had met. Those months had treated them both differently. Deran had flourished, buying the bar, distancing himself from Smurf, bonding with his brothers, growing up in general. Adrian had floundered, struggling to find his place as merely an employee at the shop he helped open, and being in over his head when he started classes at UCSD. Deran had used their time apart to become a better version of himself, someone he had always wanted to be, who Adrian always knew he could be once he stopped letting Smurf and his self doubt control him. All Adrian had done was find one more thing to fail at and a new low to sink to.

Honestly, their separations always made Adrian feel a little off, whether it lasted days, weeks, or months. They had known each other for so long that they were infused in each other. They didn't function the same way without each other.

In a lot of ways, Deran was the one constant in Adrian's life. He had walked out on his dad when he was a teenager and had only seen him a handful of times since. His mom was a sporadic presence, dipping in and out of his world when she was sober enough to remember he existed. Jess tried, bless her fucking heart, she was there for him as much as she could be until an out-of-state university and all the freedom she'd never had came calling and she'd grabbed the opportunity with both hands. And Tommy, Tommy was his Brother in New York™, thousands of miles away at all times, taking care of their other brother and that part of their family. Adrian might not have always had his parents or siblings at his side or in his life, but since he was two years old, he had Deran and Deran had him.

Things had gone bad between them before, they had parted ways with the intention of never speaking to one another on at least one occasion, but it never took. They didn't have the self control or the cruelty to cast one another out of their lives permanently. They always found their way back to each other, something that both soothed and terrified Adrian.

If Adrian went home to Oceanside, he knew how things would go. They would keep their distance for a few weeks or months, depending on their strength of will. One day, when the sun was shining and the waves were perfect, they would run into each other at the beach, surfboards under their arms. They would greet each other with timid smiles, head into the water under the pretense of riding alone, but by the end of the surf day, they would be together, sitting in the sand, chatting idly or basking in a comfortable silence. They would fall into the familiar rhythm, sharing a smoke as they toweled themselves off and agreeing to meet for drinks later in the evening, drinks leading them to roughly fucking out any lingering animosity against the closest hard surface.

"Fuck."

New York was supposed to bring him clarity, that was the whole reason for Adrian being there, instead it left him more scared, confused, and stressed the fuck out than he was when he was facing fifteen years in prison and Smurf Cody's hit-squad. It was Deran's fault. Deran fed him all kinds of false hopes and promises in their last days in Oceanside, had devastated him on what was supposed to be _**their**_ way out town, and had twisted him up inside just by showing up in New York.

Deran had decided they were going to start a new life together somewhere else and then they didn't. He had chosen to stay in Oceanside and then he had followed Adrian to New York. Deran hadn't even given him a chance to be properly angry before he had him feeling guilty over the bruises Tommy had left on his face. He kept finding new ways to rip the carpet out from under Adrian's feet without giving him a chance to recover and it wasn't fair.

"Damn it," Adrian whimpered, wiping tears from his eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie. "I-I can't..."

He couldn't go home. He couldn't stay in Queens. He couldn't give his family the explanation they were looking for. He couldn't be with Deran. He couldn't not be with Deran. He couldn't _**breathe.**_ He couldn't... He just couldn't.

* * *

Deran was pouting, that was the only way Pope could describe it. He looked all of five-years old curled in on himself in the armchair, one-eye glued to the door waiting for Adrian to come back. Adrian's little niece had offered him her stuffed turtle at one point, picking up on his bad mood and handing him the one thing she thought could make him feel better. Deran couldn't even muster up a smile for the toddler, just shrugged off the offering with about as much politeness as he could manage.

Pope didn't know what to say to his brother. He could see he was hurting, taking his break-up with Adrian harder than he had the death of their mother. Pope understood it, they were Deran & Adrian. Their bond ran deep, the pain that came with it was unbearable for someone who felt things as deeply as Deran did, and Deran practically vibrated with the force of it.

Adrian had been the opposite when he had stood in front of them that afternoon to answer for his crimes. As angry and defensive as he had been, he never raised his voice, kept an even, emotionless tone throughout the entire ordeal. For someone who always seemed to be on the move, he'd been so still, like he was afraid moving an inch would be giving away too much. He would do that as a little kid too, look seconds away from exploding and then stop suddenly, taking a breath and going so eerily still that he could have easily been mistaken for one of those porcelain dolls with dead eyes that seemed to follow you everywhere you went-- used to creep Pope and Baz out.

Pope assumed things were different between them in private, Adrian could rage and Deran could be still. Both of them were afraid to show who or what they really were to the world, at least Deran was aware of that fact, Pope didn't think Adrian had goddamn clue that he kept himself so hidden that even Deran sometimes had trouble finding him.

"There's something wrong with your brother," Pope said to Jess, towering over her small form in the kitchen.

"I could say the same thing about yours," Jess retorted, nudging him with her elbow until he moved back a couple feet. "Both of your brothers, actually."

"Yeah, but they've always been like that," Pope and his brothers had been fucked up since infancy, Smurf made sure of that. "Adrian's is new."

"Is it?" Jess quirked a brow, wetting a dish rag under the faucet. "Or are you just noticing that he's not a ray of sunshine?"

"He's never been a ray of sunshine," Sure, Adrian was a sweet kid, but there always seemed to be a dark cloud hanging over his head. "I meant the shit going on with him. The drug trafficking, getting involved with the Serbian mafia--"

"That's none of your business."

"It's my business when that is what it's doing to my brother," Pope thrust a hand out toward Deran in the other room. "It's the reason they broke up, why Deran’s like that."

"Newsflash, tool, they broke up because of your family,” Jess shook her head as she began to scrub down the kitchen counters. "Adrian wasn't leaving to avoid jail time. Deran scared him into running away, told him if he stayed, you and Craig would have his skull bashed in."

"We never said--" Pope stopped himself, realizing he still wasn’t talking to the right sibling, the one he had t plead his family’s case to. "If he hadn't gotten himself arrested, Pearce--"

"Let me stop you right there," Jess tossed the dishrag in the sink. "If Adrian hadn't chosen to share his bed with one of the fucking thieves Pearce wanted to stuff and mount to his wall, he never would have been on Pearce's radar."

"So this is Deran's fault?"

"No, it's not. Adrian chose to work with Jason, he accepted the risks that came with it, and he took responsibility," There was a longsuffering lit to Jess's tone like she'd already had this conversation with someone else and was annoyed by having to have it again. "When that cop, Pearce, threatened him, he chose to protect Deran over himself. You responded to that by hiring someone to kill him.”

"That wasn't me or Craig," He wasn't so sure he wanted to tell her it was J, fearing she might actually kill him. "It was a mistake."

"Goddamn right about that," Jess exclaimed, setting her lips in a grim line. "You know, if you walk out of here alive, it's because Adrian is still protecting you. He cares about you, not just Deran, your whole family. He will talk Tommy down, because he grew up with you and Craig as his brother's too, and that might not mean a thing to you, but it is the only reason the Serbians didn't kill all of you after that they got wind of the hit."

"You want me to say thank you?"

"I want you to act like a human being!" Jess barked, throwing her hands in the air. "You used to be one, a long time ago, I almost remember it."

"We used to be friends," Pope remembered too, they weren't close, but they had gotten along, enjoyed each other's company when their brothers activities put them in the same place at the same time. "I'm trying to be...better."

"Try harder," Jess advised him, glancing over at Deran. "For his sake, at least."

"You care about what happens to Deran?"

"Adrian cares.”

"How's this going to go with your brother tonight?" He wouldn't have to worry about his brother or the kind of person he was if he wasn't going to make it through the night. "Your other brother, I mean. Tommy."

"Well, Mom and I are going to take the baby out for dinner," Jess said as her cellphone rang in her pocket. "Deran’s going to have to find something to do, ‘cause Tommy will want to talk to you alone."

"Talk," Pope hadn’t gotten the impression he wanted to talk when he was trying to bust open his face. "That what we're calling it now?"

"That was a kneejerk reaction to seeing the person he believes wants his baby brother dead standing in his living room," Jess muttered, sliding her phone out of her jean pocket. "He's had time to process your presence, so you guys are going to sit down and come to terms."

"What terms?"

"Not my area, man. I don’t know," Jess shrugged, reading a text on the screen of her phone. "But Tommy just picked up Adrian. He says they’ve got one more stop to make before they head back here."

"Okay."

* * *

_ **NEW MESSAGES ** _ **(4)**

**TOMMY:** _where r u_

**TOMMY:** _we gotta talk to 'riq_

**TOMMY:** _it’s important_

**TOMMY:** _tell me where u r, i'll come get u_

Adrian had Tommy pick him up outside the church their mom used to take them to in the old neighborhood when they were kids. Tommy was pissed, kept a firm grip on the steering wheel the whole way to Tariq's school, but never said a word. Adrian didn't think his brother's foul mood was directed at him, not anymore at least, but it still made him nervous.

"You going to tell me what's going on?" Adrian asked hesitantly, wondering why they were navigating the halls of their nephew's boarding school so late in the day. "Is 'Riq in trouble or something?"

"Fuckin' right," Tommy grumbled, doubling back to a door they had passed and barreling into the dorm without so much as a knock. "You should learn to lock your door, 'Riq. It ain't safe, especially if you're fixing to be some big drug dealer."

"U-Uncle Tommy, Uncle A-Adrian," Tariq stammered, caught off guard by the sudden intrusion. "What, uh, what are you talking about?"

"Don't you fucking lie to me. I know you supplying Vincent," Tommy approached the kid slowly, each step a calculated movement. "I bet you dumb enough to keep that shit in here."

"I don't got nothing, Uncle Tommy." Tariq claimed as Tommy began searching his room, rustling around inside the closet. "Uncle Adrian, what the fuck is going on?"

"I don't know," Adrian was as in the dark as his nephew. "You know he wouldn't just accuse you of something. So if you've got something to say, now's the time."

"Where is it? Where is it, Tariq?" Tommy continued his search, pulling open the dresser drawers. "Where the fuck is it, Tariq?"

"I don't have anything, Uncle Tommy," 'Riq repeated, grimacing when a rattle sounded from the camouflage gym bag his uncle lifted off the floor. "Uncle Tommy--"

"The fuck?" Tommy unzipped the bag, exposing the large bottles of pills stashed inside. "Th-This is my shit. How the fuck did you get this?"

"Kanan. Kanan gave it to me," Tariq admitted a little too quickly. "He took me to one of his flops. He's dead now, so I don't think he needed it."

"Kanan?" Tommy paled. "Kanan never should've given this to you."

"I'm sorry, Uncle Tommy."

"You don't need to do this, 'Riq. You're smart. I mean, you got a good thing going here at this school. It-it's nicer than any place I ever seen growing up. You got a fountain outside. The motherfucker's bigger than the whole building I grew up in," Tommy chuckled mirthlessly, his voice growing weary. "You understand? I-I love you, 'Riq. Don't get caught up in this drug life. I need you to fucking stop right now. I mean it."

"All right, I will. I will, Uncle Tommy. I promise," Tariq vowed, eyes following his uncle’s fingers as they zipped up the bag. "That was the last of it. I won't do it anymore. I swear.”

"Okay," Tommy relaxed, squeezing 'Riq's shoulder. "Good."

All on the same page, they let forced smiles be their goodbyes. Tommy and Adrian walked through the halls of the school in the same silence they'd made the drive up in, neither uttering a word until they were back in the parking lot and Tommy was shoving Adrian against his car.

"Hey," Tommy kept him in place with a hand to his chest. "That in there, that was as much for you as it was for him."

"I know," Adrian wasn't stupid, he had heard every word his brother had said, felt each one like a knife to his heart. "I-I don't...I don't have any more answers now than I did this afternoon."

"I don't need answers. I need you to _**stop**_, A. You are better than this shit. You're supposed to be better," Tommy sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Look, I-I'll help you do whatever it is you want to do. There some place you want to go, I'll get you there. Just tell me what it is."

The only thing Adrian wanted was to burrow in a dark corner of his closet like he used to do when he was a kid home alone with his drunk father. He wanted to clench his eyes shut and clamp his hands over his ears and hide until the world stopped screaming at him. He wanted to go somewhere the anger, guilt, and _**grief **_couldn't follow.

"I don't know. Why can't anyone understand that? _**I don't know**_," Adrian had accomplished things in his life, reached goals he set for himself, and he'd managed to fuck up every single one. Now he was stranded on a slab of driftwood in the middle of the ocean with no sign of land in sight."That's how I got here. I'm just trying...I'm just trying to keep from drowning here, Tommy."

"Hey. Hey, it's okay," Tommy curled his arms around him, rolling his eyes at Adrian’s whine of protest. "It's all right. We'll figure it out. We'll get you out of this shit with Jason and go from there."

"We can't just go up to Jason and tell him I want out," He had no one to blame but himself for that, it was his own fault for getting involved with Jason in the first place. "And you know, I don't mind the work. It'll be better for everyone if we just go along with it for now, till we work out a plan to get rid of Jason."

"Get rid of Jason?" Tommy tensed. "What you mean by that?"

"I overheard him talking to Jamie earlier at Truth. That shit today was a set-up. He told Jamie about the new shipment. He wants Jamie to kill you and take your place as his distro," Jason seemed to be under the false impression that Jamie somehow came with less problems than Tommy, and therefore, would be easier to work with. "He thinks Jamie's a better businessman than you. We either have to prove him wrong or deal with him another way."

"We will. Tomorrow," Tommy decided, taking his keys out of his jacket pocket. "Tonight we got your Cody problem to deal with."

"Just don't kill them."

"I can't promise that."

* * *

If anyone had told Craig a fucking year ago that one day soon he'd be washing baby spit up off his favorite jacket in the bathroom sink, he would have laughed in their face. And yet, there he was, hunched over, using dish-soap to get regurgitated formula off leather, because he didn't know where the laundry detergent was or if he could even use detergent on leather.

"What happened?" Renn asked, strolling in from the bedroom. "You okay?"

"Oh yeah, just," He held his jacket up to show her the damage. "Your son."

"Oh," She smiled softly. "Gets that from you."

"Yeah, that's probably true," Craig spent a good part of his life bent over the toilet or some bushes, puking his guts out after a long night out. "You got home early. I thought you had some big sale to make?"

"I thought I did too," Renn pursed her lips. "Buyer changed his mind. It’s weird. He's been a client for a long time; suddenly he doesn't trust me enough to buy coke off me."

"Why?"

"Because I'm with you," She responded, crossing her arms over her chest. "He's not the only one who’s stopped buying from me. Over the last week, I've only sold to a couple junkies under the pier, and I haven't had to do that since high school."

"Wait, wait," Craig dropped his jacket into the sink. "What do you mean, because you're with me? What the hell does that mean?"

"The word’s been put out about the Codys, Craig. You've got no friends left in Oceanside," Renn explained, clearing absolutely nothing up for him. "And since I'm with you, I don't either."

"I don't get it," He must've been missing some key information, because he was at a loss. "What word?"

"That helping the Codys, working with them, being connected to them at all, it’s as good as killing yourself," Renn drawled, leaning against the doorjamb. "It doesn't matter how deep they are in with you, how many years they've looked the other way or provided you with tools you need for a job or an alibi, the minute the cops ask them a few questions about you, they are marked for death."

"Oh, is that what this is about?" Craig huffed, turning to face her. "Look, I had nothing to do with that hit. Okay? I'm not sure how you heard about it--"

"It’s not just Adrian, Craig. It’s Cath, too. They both just disappeared. Everybody knew they were being questioned about something, your family more than likely. The cops met them in public places, people saw," Renn said with a frown. "If they had actually given you guys up, they would have been WITSEC'd and you guys would be in jail."

"Unless we got to them before the cops could WITSEC them," Craig joked, but it fell flat to his girlfriend’s ears. "Yeah, okay, neither of them gave us up."

"But you got rid of them anyway."

"Hey, Adrian's fine," The kid was safe and sound the last Craig had heard. "And I had nothing to do with that hit--"

"It was done in your family name, Craig, that puts it on_** all**_ of you," Renn retorted, narrowing her eyes. "I don't think_** you**_ did anything to Cath either, but someone in your family did."

"What's any of this have to do with why we don't have any friends or whatever?"

"Your family made the two people who were as good as family to you just disappear, all because the cops _**talked**_ to them," Renn scowled, condemning their practices. "If you're willing to do that, what would you do to the people you don't give a fuck about? Leave them dead in a hole in Mexico like Ox?"

"Ox is dead?"

"If you guys don't even trust the ones you claim to love to keep their mouths shut, you'll never trust anyone else. The cops question them, you will kill them, those are the facts being spread around Oceanside," Renn reported without an ounce of sympathy in her tone. "So the next time the cops pick up someone who knows something, offers them immunity, protection in exchange for their testimony against you, they will choose to testify. No one is going to stay quiet if you are just going to kill them anyway. They will talk if it is the only way they believe they will make it out alive."

"Fuck." That was some heavy shit, man. "So wha-- what does that mean?"

"You guys are on your own from here on out."

"Fuck."

"You know, the cops have questioned me about you before, more than a few times," Renn disclosed, a look in her eye that dared him to reprimand her for it. "Actually, Adrian and I used to pass each other in the hall as we were being led to separate interrogation rooms."

"What?" What the fuck? "You never told me that!"

"I assumed you knew. It's part of the game, Craig," Renn took it upon herself to educate him on a thing or two. "The cops will lean on anyone in your life they think has information."

"The cops have never asked me about you."

"I keep a much lower profile than you do."

"Yeah, I guess that's kind of true."

"See, you guys live in this little bubble Smurf created. She handled everything, so you don't understand how all this really works," Renn remarked rather judgmentally, in Craig's opinion. "There's supposed to be rules to this shit, Craig."

"Rules?"

"Loyalty's supposed to mean something," Renn replied, face twisting in an unreadable expression. "So now that you know that cops have talked to me, am I the next to go? Am I joining Cath and Adrian in the desert? At least I'll be in good company."

"No, Renn," Craig wasn't going to let that happen. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt you."

"I guess we'll see."

* * *

Tommy and Pope had the illusion of privacy at the loft. Kate, Jess, and the baby had gone out for a late dinner in case the situation took a turn, and the boys had been sent upstairs to prevent any interference. So, it was just the two of them, sitting at opposite ends of the dining room table, waiting to see who would crack first.

"All right," Tommy had the home field advantage, he would start them off. "It's going to come out to $410,000 a month, every month, no exceptions."

"For what?"

"So I don't finish what I started on you and Deran," He wanted it to come to that, he would love to get his hands on them again, but he'd told his brother he would do his best to keep things civil. "So I don't have to track down the rest of your little band of thieves and give them the same treatment."

"You want us to pay you not to retaliate?" Pope stifled a laugh like Tommy had said something funny. "We're not going to do that."

"You're going to pay me or I'm going to kill you," They weren't negotiating, Tommy was laying out facts, terms and conditions. "It's more than fair. You tried to kill my brother."

"I know Adrian thinks we want him dead--"

"Actually, he's the only one who doesn't," It was a point of contention between them whenever the Codys were brought up over the last several days. "He thinks it's just your nephew."

"J's still new to all this,” To his credit, Pope didn’t try to deny the accusation, however, citing his nephew’s lack of experience wasn’t the best defense. “He didn’t fully appreciate what he was doing."

“Well, that’s what happens when you put a teenager in charge,” Tommy didn’t even want to know how a grown man could stand being handed orders from a child. "He realize his error before or after the Serbs knocked on your door?"

"No one from our family will hurt your bother or hire someone to hurt him again," The other man promised, growing increasingly impatient as the minutes ticked by. "You have my word."

"Your word means fuck all to me," Tommy didn't trust the chia pet-looking motherfucker or any goddamn thing he had to say. "You go after my brother again or you miss a payment, I am going to put a bullet in your heads, one-by-one. Except Deran. I'm gonna let him live, make sure he spends the rest of his miserable life as alone as my brother would have been if he'd gone to Indonesia."

"Why $410,000?" Pope asked, either choosing to ignore the threat or just accepting it for what it was.

"Well, there a four of you, right? Four of you, $40,000 apiece, that gets you to $160,000," Originally, Tommy had thought of charging them $10,000 a pop, but then decided that was low-balling it and upped the ante. "Then $10,000 for each year my brother has known you rounds up to that last $250,000."

"We don't have that kind of money."

"You have houses. You have businesses. Buildings. I'm sure you've each got a few stash houses loaded up with a rainy-day fund," Tommy had seen the way the Codys lived when he visited his brother in Oceanside, they had a lot of expensive toys for people who acted like they were working class folk. "I don't care how you get my money, so long as it's in my sister's hand at the first of every month."

"I'm not paying you anything. Jess already played your cards," Pope alleged, unfazed by what he must have assumed was Tommy's posturing, "You're listening to Adrian. He's not going to let you hurt us."

"I have taken my brother's feelings into account. I've also weighed that against his wellbeing. The scales don't lie, man. He would be much better off with all of you dead-- so would a lot of other people, including your niece Lena and your nephew Nick," Tommy remarked, sliding his phone across the table. "I know you're not going to take me seriously without some proof. So why don't you take a look at that."

A live feed of the Cody home had been streaming to his phone since they'd sat down for the meeting, courtesy of Jason's men in Oceanside. The house wasn't how Pope had left it, Tommy was sure of that. The flames had done a fair amount of damage already, but it was still fairly recognizable, although by morning it would be nothing but a pile of ash.

"That's your mom's place, isn't it?" Tommy tapped the screen, a smug smirk dancing on his lips. "Don’t worry, your nephew and girlfriend weren't there. But Craig, his girl, and that little baby of theirs, they're all snuggled up in that nice little house off the beach. I've got a guy there too, waiting to be given the go-ahead."

"I can make a call too," Pope sneered, slamming the phone face-down on the table. "Tell Jack's crew, his bosses, that Adrian ratted them out."

"Jack's bosses worked for the Jimenez. I don't think they're going to believe much of what you have to say when I tell them that your mother hired the Trujillos to take out Alicia and Diego Jimenez's cousin, Lucy. She ran things for them at border, but you knew that, right?" Tommy had learned a lot about the Codys from the Serbs after their confrontation with the Trujillos. "She was your brother Baz's girlfriend for awhile, wasn't she? Heard they shot her dead right in front of her kid."

"What?" Pope wavered, furrowing his brows. "I didn't know anything about that. I didn't even know Lucy was dead."

"I don't think they're going to care," All Tommy had to do was put the word out, get what was left of the Trujillos to corroborate the story in exchange for their lives. "It was your mother, so it was your family, so you are all guilty. And a cartel's not going to give you an option to pay your way back into their favor. They will put you all on your knees and execute you, one right after another, starting the youngest of you."

"And you're going to let us pay our way, huh?"

"$410,000 once a month, every month," He was doing them a favor by even offering them a chance to stay alive. "The insurance from Smurfette's house should more than cover your first payment."

"Right."

"What did you think was going to happen when you came here? Huh? You were gonna spit out a couple half-ass excuses and then just walk away?" Dude must’ve been living in fairytale-land. "That's not how this works. I don't expect you to get it, man. Mommy had to handhold you through every goddamn thing. You in the game, but you don't know how to play it."

"I'm not in _**your **_game," Pope growled, lifting his chin defiantly. "I'm not a drug dealer."

"Nah, you're a dirty thief," Tommy hated dealing with thieves, fuckin' untrustworthy, immoral, disloyal scumbags, the lot of them. "Adrian's next boyfriend, yeah, he gonna be a better class of criminal."

"The criminal part a prerequisite?"

"Preference, mostly," It would make explaining their lives a lot easier. "So what'll it be, Potsy?"

“_**Pope**_,” The other man corrected, balling his hands into fists on the table. “Is Adrian really worth all this bullshit to you?"

"He's my brother," There wasn't a goddamn line Tommy wouldn't cross to keep him safe. "That's the one thing I did expect you to understand."

"Well, your brother was talking to the cops."

"He was doing a job," Tommy didn't like it, but they'd all done sketchy shit for a job at least once. "You going to pretend like the cops never pulled you in, asked you questions about your family or someone else?"

"That's not even close to the same thing."

"Seems to me that Deran's the one you should want dead. He was the one running his mouth. Adrian, that kid's been on lock since he learned to speak," Tommy had taught him what not to say before he'd even learned the alphabet or to count to ten. "He never told any of you what I did, did he? No. He never told me what you fuckers did. He never told me he was working for the Serbs, either. We all learned that shit on our own. Deran is the one spilling your family secrets. Maybe you ought to get him on lock."

* * *

Adrian hadn't said a goddamn word to Deran since he returned to the apartment with Tommy. He'd ushered Deran into the upstairs with an annoying flick of his wrist, grabbed some clothes out of his backpack , and then disappeared. He shuffled back in ten minutes later, donning wet hair, a bare chest, and Deran's favorite pair of fucking shorts.

"Those are mine."

"They were in my bag," Adrian mumbled, reaching into his backpack to pull out a fresh shirt. "Sorry. I thought I'd grabbed one before I got in the shower."

"I've seen you shirtless before," Although, it had been a couple years since he’d seen black, blue, and purple blotches stretching from his shoulders to the waistband of his shorts. “What the hell happened to your back?”

"I fell."

"You fell, okay," That was probably all the clarification Deran would get on that subject. "You took a shower this morning, why'd you take another one?"

"I felt like it," Adrian shrugged, slipping a hoodie over his head. "It was a long day."

"Right," Deran wouldn't push, not about that anyway. "What do you think is going on downstairs?"

"Haven't heard any gunfire or breaking glass yet, so a staring contest maybe," Adrian mused, turning toward the dresser. "Actual conversation seems unlikely with them."

"Yeah, they're not the only ones," Deran muttered under his breath as he reclined back on the bed. "Those two down there, it's like some weird meet the parents shit without the parents."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Where'd you run off to when you stormed out of here this afternoon?" He wasn’t trying to be nosy, but Adrian wasn't giving him a damn thing to work with. "Got another boyfriend in town?"

"No," Adrian tossed an inscrutable look over his shoulder. "Don't have one of those anywhere."

"Ouch."

"Your choice."

"You were the one lying. You're the one that changed, started keeping secrets," The blame for the state of their relationship did not lie with Deran. "You know, I always thought I was the one keeping all the secrets."

"No, I'm just better at it than you."

"And look where that's gotten us."

"I'm only allowed to keep your secrets, then?" Adrian questioned, hands gripping the edge of the dresser. "I'm not allowed to have my own?"

"Not from me," Deran had always shared more with Adrian than his family would have liked, but it was under the pretense Adrian was doing the same. "If Pearce hadn't stuck his nose in shit, would you ever have told me what was going on? Would you have told me about what you were really doing with Jack? Would you have said anything about working for the Serbians?"

"Would you have told me what your family was if I hadn't figured it out for myself when we were kids?"

"Don't do that. Don't turn this on me," Deran wasn't the asshole here. "I've always told you fucking everything. You're the one who's been spewing bullshit."

"Okay."

"Okay?" What the fuck was '_okay_'? "You're not supposed to just say _**okay**_ and have that be the end of it."

"You're hurt and pissed because I lied to you. I should have been honest with you, I’m sorry that I-I wasn’t," Adrian’s voice cracked as he dropped the vacant tone he'd been using since his impromptu intervention, remorse and regret taking its place. "I’m sorry that I ruined things between us. I’m sorry that my brother hurt you. I’m sorry."

"Don't fucking do that either! Don't agree with me. You're not supposed to agree with me," Deran hated when Adrian got all agreeable and understanding when they were in the middle of a fight Deran had the high ground in. "You're supposed to call me out on all the shit I've pulled, I'd tell you my shit was ancient history, we'd argue some more and then...."

"And then..." Adrian sighed, bitterness dripping from his words. "So that's what this is about? That's what you want? You’re trying to start a fight so we'll end up having sex?"

"No." Maybe a little, but it wasn't his fault that their problems always seemed easier to fix after a good hard fuck. "Maybe it's better if we just get to that part, since you don't seem like you want to talk or fight or whatever."

"What do you want to talk about, Deran?" Adrian asked as he finally turned away from the dresser to face him. "What is there left to say?"

"Did you mean what you said on the pier?" Deran could still hear the words ringing in his ears, was sure they would haunt him for the rest of his life if Adrian had meant them. "Am I really the worst thing that ever happened to you?"

"I shouldn't have said that."

"Did you mean it?"

"I meant it when I said it," Adrian admitted, voice tight, restrained. "I was angry, Deran. I'm sorry."

"You're still angry," Deran wore his anger like a second skin, Adrian hid his behind a mask of indifference.

"I'm too tired to be angry, Deran."

"Did you mean the other thing?" Deran had only worked up the courage to say the words once, couldn't bring himself to say them again. "That you..."

"Love you?" Adrian supplied, meeting Deran's gaze, letting him see the truth in his eyes. "It's not something I can turn off."

"Would you?"

"Please don't ask me that."

"Why?"

"Because I don’t know the answer."


	5. Hell is Just a Place on Earth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd.  
Chapter title comes from: [I Just Don't Care that Much by Matt Maeson](https://youtu.be/FFhSQRunIaw)  
Gif sets: [Bone](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/188935890451/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-bone-the-deeper-i-looked), [Work](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/188446819086/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-work-this-isnt), [Proctor Situation](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/188546006786/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-proctor-situation-tommy), [The Win](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/188662602306/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-the-win-loyalty)
> 
> Set during Power 6x05 Kings Gambit

Adrian's niece was an early riser, he supposed most babies were. He didn't mind it, he was usually up with the sun no matter how little sleep he had. Since his little niece had been born, whenever Adrian crashed with his sister, he happily volunteered to get up with the baby in the early morning hours, and it was no different while they were staying at their brother's apartment.

Charlie had woken up sometime after 6am, wailing for her daddy. Adrian wrapped her in his arms before her cries could wake up Jess or Kate. It hadn't taken long to calm her, she was a low maintenance kid, the old walk-and-rock was enough to soothe her, but not to loll her back to sleep, so he resorted to other means to keep her occupied until she fell asleep or her mom got up, whichever came first.

He laid out a throw blanket on the floor and sat cross-legged with his niece on his lap. He dumped a small tub of building box on the floor and set her loose to play. She didn’t totter off as he thought she would, but remained on his lap as she picked up the multi-colored blocks and stacked them on top of each other.

"I know you miss your dad," He hated being the reason she was separated from one of her parents, even if it had only been a few days. "I know he misses you too."

Video chats and phone calls weren't enough for Carter and Charlie. They needed to be near each other, Charlie needed both her parents.

"I'm sorry you got caught in the middle of this," Adrian murmured into his niece's hair. "You'll be home soon, I promise."

Jess and Charlie had to go home, Adrian knew it was for the best, but it still hurt to think about. Having their little family all together in one place for the first time in years had been a nice change, even with how tense things had been. He'd forgotten what it was like to have both Tommy and Jess with him instead of just one or the other.

"You think we could convince Uncle Tommy and Grandma to come live with us in Oceanside?" Adrian asked the toddler, who responded by knocking over her growing tower of blocks. "Yeah, you're right. It's never going to happen.

Tommy and Kate were New Yorkers, they'd been born and bred there, and one day would likely be dead and buried there. Tommy would probably break out in hives if he spent longer than a week away from the Big Apple. If Tommy wouldn't leave, Kate wouldn't either. While Adrian was the youngest of his siblings, Tommy was Kate's baby, because Tommy was the child she got to keep, the one she raised.

In some ways, Tommy was more Kate's child than Adrian or Jess had ever been. Tommy might have been the most ungrateful of Kate's three bastards, but he was also the one who took care of her, and she would be the first to admit she loved Tommy the most. Adrian didn't know how his sister felt about it, but it never bothered him much.

As a kid, Adrian hadn't much use for either of his parents. They weren't attentive or affectionate, Nico was more likely to raise a hand than offer a hug, and Kate was often too busy riding a high or chasing one to pay much attention. That's not to say they were bad all around.

He had Nico to thank for his love for surfing, his old man had put him on a board the first day they landed in Oceanside, and aside from a few strands of DNA, surfing was the one thing they had in common. And Kate, well, for some reason he could not fathom, she could read him better than almost anyone, something that annoyed the fuck out of him as a kid, but often came in handy. So, yeah, they had their moments, he would give them that, but he had never really looked at either of them and saw someone worthy of admiration.

As an adult, with the added benefit of hindsight, he could see that while Kate and Nico had left much to be desired, Adrian had still been brought up by two parental figures cleverly disguised as his older siblings. Jess and Tommy hadn't been given much of a choice in the matter, they either had to take up the roles themselves or leave him to fend for himself, he was grateful they chose the former. They had gone about it in drastically different ways, but they had done a far better job than Kate and Nico could have.

"Hey, you two," Jess greeted them through a yawn as she descended the stairs. "You're up early."

"We're morning people," Adrian said with a half-shrug. "Did we wake you?"

"Mom did with her snoring," Jess mumbled, joining them on the floor. "You feeling a little better than you were last night?"

"I don't know."

The previous night had been particularly rough for Adrian. His conversation with Deran had left him feeling wrecked, his little intervention kept replaying over and over in his head, and the lives he was responsible for taking never strayed far from his mind. The culmination of it all left him drained, emotionally and physically exhausted, and eventually his body forced him into submission.

The damage of the last several days had hit him like a ton of bricks, and all he could was crawl into bed between his mom and sister for comfort. Jess didn't hesitate to curl her arms around him, let him bury his face in the crook of her neck and sob quietly. He must have fallen asleep at some point, because the next thing he knew he was waking to the sound of his little niece crying.

"I'm sorry about all that," Adrian sniffled, tightening his hold on the toddler. "I don't know what the hell's wrong with me."

"You don't have to apologize for that," Jess pressed a kiss to the side of his head. "I think you needed it, you know. You've kept yourself locked up pretty tight, haven't had much time to breathe. Something was going to give eventually."

"I'm just so tired, Jess," The few hours of sleep he did manage hadn't left him feeling anymore rested than when he’d laid down. "Maybe I should have just gone to Indonesia. Maybe that would have been better for everyone."

"Don’t say things like that," Jess scowled, knocking their shoulders together. "You can't just disappear to some foreign country to live all alone without your family or your friends. Some fucked up life of solitude isn't right for someone like you."

"I could have tried," He could survive on his own, he had done it before, but with no option to return home, to be with his family again, he would have had nothing to live for, no reason to keep going. "None of this would be happening if I had just gone."

"If you had gone, I would have told Tommy everything, and Oceanside would be soaked in Cody blood right now," Jess said bluntly. "I wouldn't mind that, but you would."

"I know you don't get it, okay," No one, his family especially, had ever really understood his connection to Deran or his friendship with the Cody brothers, or why it remained as it did despite all that had transpired over the years. "If I could turn it all off, forget the years between us...but I can't."

"You can't help who you love, Adrian, and that's okay," Jess stroked a hand through his hair. "But you can't ignore everything that's happened either. All this with you and Deran isn't new. It's been coming for awhile."

"Yeah, well, this time it's on me," He had shut Deran out, kept an entire part of his life secret knowing full well how Deran was likely to react if and when he found out. "I-It was just easier, you know, to keep what I was doing from everyone, but mostly him, because I knew he wouldn't understand. I knew he would be angry no matter when I told him. He wouldn't...he wouldn't be okay with it or anything else I did that wasn't surfing or surfing related."

"Deran expects you to be more for him than he will ever be for you," Jess remarked curtly. "He's selfish, Adrian. He always has been. He doesn't think of you the way you think of him. You see him as a partner, he sees you as a possession."

"He loves me," He had to believe that, otherwise what the hell had they been doing the last few years? "He does."

"Not the way you love him."

"I know," What he felt for Deran was stronger, everything with Pearce and the failed trip to Indonesia was proof of that. "I've always known that, it just didn't hurt as much when it was just something I thought."

"Adrian, as much as I want you to come home after things get settled, I don't want you somewhere you don't want to be," She frowned, shifting on the floor so they were facing one another. "If it hurts too much for you to be in Oceanside, maybe you should stay here with Mom and Tommy."

"I want to go home with you and Charlie," He wasn't going to let things with Deran keep him from his home. "It's probably going to be awhile before things are settled enough for me to go back, but you and Charlie..."

"We have to go home, I know," Jess sighed heavily, gazing at her young daughter. "My vacation days are running out, and she misses her daddy."

"She was crying out for him this morning," Adrian took that as a testament to the kind of father Carter was. "Gotta talk to Tommy first. I'm not sure what he did to get Pope in line last night, so I can't be sure it won't blowback on you."

"Deran and Pope are here. I don't think Deran's going anywhere without you, and Pope's not going to let him stay here unprotected. The only ones left in Oceanside are Craig and, what's his name, Julia's kid," Jess determined, narrowing down the list of potential threats. "I'm not worried about Craig. It's Julia's kid, he's a wild card."

"He's Smurf's mirror image," Which was exactly what the Cody matriarch wanted. "Every time he made a move against her, he was playing right into her hands, becoming exactly what she wanted him to become."

"You're worried he'd use me to retaliate?"

"The kid doesn't have a conscience," Adrian could see that just by looking in the kid's cold dead eyes. "He will use you and Charlie to try to get the upper hand. We need to be sure you'll be safe before you go back."

"Okay."

* * *

Deran and Pope had snuck out of the loft well before dawn to avoid any questions about where they were going or what they were doing. They had gone to a diner, ate the greasiest breakfast Deran ever had, and waited for a call from Frankie with information regarding someone they needed to make contact with. Once they had that information on hand, they found themselves navigating the streets of New York to find the address they had been given.

The directions led them to a warehouse surrounded by shipping containers near the harbor. Security personnel were spread around the property, speaking to each other in a language Deran didn't understand.

"Heavily guarded," Pope stated, as if that wasn’t obvious, as they hid themselves around the corner of a building on the opposite side of the street. "Must be the right place."

"Yeah, guess Frankie came through after all," A bit of a shock really, Deran expected her to fuck them over again. "How are we playing this?"

"Not sure."

"Great," Coming up with a plan probably should have been their first priority before schlepping their asses across the city first thing in the fucking morning. "So you just want to knock on the front door and ask the guy not to kill us if J or someone else in the family steps out of line again?"

"Something like that," Pope huffed, lines of stress creasing his forehead. "They need to know we're not a threat to them."

"They don't think we're a threat," That much was becoming clear to Deran. "No one here thinks we're a threat."

"Yeah, I'm starting to understand that," Pope grumbled, tipping his head back against the brick exterior of the building. "Trying to change that opinion is either going to end with us in body bags or in the middle of a war we don't have the manpower to fight."

"So we just go along with it, let them think we're weak," It pretty much went against every single thing they were ever taught. "Smurf would have sent us in there to kill them, even if it got us killed in the process."

"Smurf didn't care if we lived or died," Pope pointed out, balling his hands into fists. "We're not doing things her way anymore. Remember?"

"Yeah," It was just hard to let go of all that training sometimes. "You know, we don't know if these people are actually going to talk to us. They know who we are. They could just put bullets in our heads."

"Yeah, they could kill us,” Pope wasn’t bothered by the possibility of death, which wasn’t as surprising as it should have been. “Or worse, they could let us go.”

“How is that worse?”

“We could spend the rest of our lives looking over our shoulder for the Serbian mafia, Deran, and I’d rather not if we can avoid it,” Pope retorted, leveling him with a sharp glare. "We've got enough fucking problems back home and with Adrian's brother, we don't need this one."

"I know," It was like they had enemies coming at them from all sides, some still hidden in the shadows waiting for the right moment to strike, others making plays right out in the open for them to see. "So we knock on the front door, try to convince them we're not a threat, and hope they don't kill us?"

"Yeah."

"Do we have a backup plan?"

"Nope."

"Awesome."

* * *

Adrian's dour mood wasn't going to get any better lazing around Tommy's loft, it was more likely to get worse the longer he let himself dwell on it. The only way to snap himself out of it was to get up, to go somewhere, to do something. He needed to move, to keep his mind and body busy; it was all he could do to keep his head above water.

He took his niece with him when he left the apartment to give his sister a break, and because it was difficult to stay in a bad mood in the little girl's presence. They ended up at a recently opened daycare center called _Tomorrow's Tots_ where Adrian's other sister and niece had been spending their days.

"Uncle!" Yasmine exclaimed gleefully as he came through the door. "Charlie!"

"Hey, there's my girl," Adrian crouched to give his goddaughter a quick hug. "I missed you."

"I missed you," She kissed his cheek and made grabby hands at Charlie. "Can we play?"

"Sure, babe," He set his youngest niece on the floor, handing her off to her cousin. "Where's Mama?"

"I'm here," Tasha stepped out of an office in the back. "Wasn't expecting you."

"Jess and Charlie might be going home soon, I figured Yas and Charlie might like to spend some more time together," Adrian pasted on a grin for the girls' sake. "And I hadn't seen Yas since I got to town, so I thought we'd check out your new spot.”

"Well, what do you think?" She asked, gesturing to the daycare center. “It’s coming along, right?”

"It looks great," Real nice compared to most daycares in the neighborhood, or so he assumed. "You got it put together quick. I mean, you didn't say anything when we had dinner."

"I didn't know I'd be doing this then. Mom gave me the idea, she was watching a bunch of neighborhood kids at her place when she had Yas," Tasha explained. "And when Rashad Tate came to me, offered me whatever I wanted in exchange for playing happy home with Ghost, I saw an opportunity. He and Ramona Garrity got me permits, funds, the building."

"What does Tate care if you and Ghost are together or not?" From what Adrian understood, Rashad was just a councilman running for governor, the personal lives on his constituents shouldn’t have been any of his business. "It's a little strange, no?”

"Ghost is a very public figure in his campaign," Tasha rolled her eyes. "Tate wanted him to appear like a family man."

"Uh huh." It wasn't much of a stretch, Jamie had been a loving husband and father once upon a time. "At least you found a way to get something out of it.”

"Well, I needed the income," Tasha said with a shrug. "Not that I'm going to see any income from it for awhile. I mean, the start-up cost, the overhead, it's gonna take a while before it brings in a profit. And I need money, like, today."

"I have a couple thousand back at the loft," He would be happy to give it to her if it was his to give. "Most of it's Deran's, though, and I've got to give it back, but I can get you--"

"Hey, no, I don't want your money," Tasha waved off his attempt to offer assistance. "Hold up. I heard you been working for Tommy's connect the last few months. How is it you only got a couple grand that's not all yours?"

"Cost of living's expensive," With a coastal town like Oceanside, that was in the middle of being gentrified, that cost rose more and more with every passing year. "Plus, I've got student loans, I help Jess out when I can, and I was paying the month-to-month bills at Deran's house—actually, I might still be, I haven’t turned off the auto-pay."

Deran had paid the mortgage off in full upon purchasing the house, refusing to accept what little Adrian had to offer up himself at the time. So when he'd asked Adrian to set up the automatic payments for the month-to-month bills like electricity, water, internet and cable, Adrian had linked it all up to his personal bank account. If Deran noticed the lack of charges on his own bank statements, he never brought it up.

"He wouldn't let me help pay for the house when he bought it, and even with what I was earning from Jason, it would've taken me too long to wash my half anyway." Deran had wanted the house right then and there, and he wasn't going to wait for Adrian to come up with the money to cover his portion of the mortgage. "Paying the utilities and stuff made me feel better living there, made me feel less like a live in...well, you know…"

"How are you washing your money?" Tasha questioned, narrowing her eyes. "It's been a few years since you helped me with the laundry mats. You haven’t lost your touch, have you?"

“I’ve been cleaning it through my dad’s tattoo parlor,” Adrian had been doing the books at his dad’s parlor since he was in high school, going in after-hours to get it done so he didn’t have to run into the old man. Leaving notes for each other in the office regarding the business was the only contact they’d really had since he was fourteen. “I’m thinking about opening one of those 24hr arcades though. Same concept as the wash and folds. All coin operated machines.”

"You were always pretty good with the wash and folds."

"I learned from the best," He wouldn't have been able to do any of it if she hadn't taken the time to teach him. "So, you're not going to lecture me?"

"About what? That you're in the game like the rest of us?" Tasha snorted, shaking her head. "I think you've probably heard enough from your brothers."

"Yeah," Nearly everyone in his world had taken shots at him over his recent choices. "I don't want to talk about all that. Tell me about you. What's new, besides the daycare and the divorce? Feel like we haven't talked in awhile."

"Well-- Oh, your brother, _**Ghost**_," There was no lack of disgust in her tone was she spit out her husband’s nickname. "He forged my signature to divest Raina's trust fund without even telling me."

"Shit," That was low, even for Jamie. "W-Why wouldn't he tell you? She was your daughter too."

"I didn't earn the money, so I didn't need to know, apparently," Tasha replied through gritted teeth. "He's putting it all in that _Queens Childs Project_ thing that's never getting done."

"You don't think so?"

"Rashad and Ghost are trying to do it together, and they both corrupt motherfuckers."

"I'm sorry, Tash," Adrian wondered if the focus of her irritation being on her ex-husband meant she wasn't aware of her son's extracurricular activities. "Has, uh, Tommy talked to you today or last night?"

"No. Why?"

"No reason, really," Adrian didn't want to say anything until he spoke to Tommy about it. "We, uh, we went to visit 'Riq at school yesterday. Seems like a nice place."

"It is," Tasha agreed as her phone began to buzz in her hand. She flashed him an apologetic smile and checked the device. "Speak of the devil."

"'Riq?" Adrian asked, feeling his own phone vibrate in his pocket.

"His school."

"Oh," Adrian figured that couldn't be about anything good, but he had his own problems with the text message lighting up his screen.

_ **NEW MESSAGE** _

**JASON:** _Warehouse. Now. Alone._

* * *

For all its space, Tommy's loft had become a crowded mess over the last few days, with his family and the Cody brothers considering it their own personal hotel. When he showed up late in the morning to check on things, he expected to find it overflowing with people and noise, but all that was waiting for him was his sister standing over the stove in the kitchen.

"Hey Sis," Tommy pressed a quick kiss to the younger woman's cheek. "Smells good. What're you making?"

"Pancakes," Jess stepped back from the stove to give him a peek as his stomach rumbled loudly. "Jesus. Do you not eat at Keisha's?"

"I ate my breakfast. Now I'm ready for lunch," Tommy rubbed his stomach. "I'm the first one in the kitchen, I get the first stack.”

"No one else is here," Jess mentioned, slipping a pancake onto a plate. "It's just you and me."

"It was a full house last night," Tommy frowned, pouring a cup of coffee. "Where the hell is everybody?"

"Mom went to check on the house. Adrian went to see Tasha, took the baby with him," Jess revealed as she added more batter to the pan. "Deran and Pope were gone when we got up. Their bags are still here, though, so I don't think they went far."

"Too bad," Tommy grunted, wishing the fucking Codys would just get the fuck out of New York. "Why'd Adrian take the kid?"

"He, uh, wanted to spend some time with her before, um," Jess paused, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. "Before we went back to Oceanside. That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Adrian was worried things might be too dangerous for us right now, that the Codys -- the nephew -- might try to use me and Charlie to retaliate."

"You don't got to worry. Okay, Sis? I got you," He squeezed her shoulder comfortingly. "I figured you might not be able to stay long, so I’ve already been in contact with some people out there. I hired some guys, they'll meet you at the airport, and they're going to stay on you and Charlie at all times until the Codys stop being a threat.”

"Jason's guys?"

"No," That would be too dangerous given the current state of things. "They're unaffiliated. They're, uh, kind of like mercenaries."

"I don't really like the idea of strange people around, but if it keeps Charlie safe..." Jess nodded, silently agreeing to the security detail. "What happens when Charlie's at day care or with Carter?"

"She'll still be protected, you both will be," Tommy was paying good money to insure they would both be protected at all times for the foreseeable future. "You just need to tell me when you're going, your flight info and all that, so I can let them know where to be and when."

"I was looking at flights for tomorrow, this weekend at the latest," Jess offered him a rough estimate of when she and her daughter would be on their way home. "It's not that I want to leave, it's just...Charlie needs her dad."

"I know, Sis, it's all right," He couldn't blame her for doing what was best for her daughter. "You're a good mom."

"I'm trying."

"We should do a dinner or something before you go," Tommy suggested, grasping at what little time they had left to spend together as a family. "Who knows when we'll all be in the same place at the same time again, we should take advantage."

"I'd like that," Jess grinned, but it was gone just as quickly as it appeared on her lips. "So, um, did you get anything out of Adrian while you guys were out last night?"

"He's gonna get out the game," Tommy had slept peacefully the previous night with that assurance. "But that's only half the battle, Sis. I mean, that kid, he's fucking lost. I don't know if it's some lack of purpose bullshit or if he's just depressed and that’s poisoning everything else, but..."

"Maybe it's both," Jess gnawed on her bottom lip. "I think, when I get home, I'm going to look into a therapist or something for him. If we can't help him, maybe a professional can."

"I'm not sure how that's going to fly with him," If they'd learned anything in the last few days, it was that there little brother wasn't much of a sharer, but maybe it would be easier for him to talk to a stranger. "It's a worth a shot, though. He can't keep going on like he has been."

"Neither can you."

"What you mean by that?"

"This shit with you and Jamie has to stop, Tommy," Jess sat the spatula on a napkin on the counter and turned to face him. "I don't know what set it off this time, and I don't want to know. The fact is, we're all family, and we need each other."

"We don't need him," They were better off without that disloyal fuck. "He ain't our family anymore."

"Well, he seemed like family yesterday, when he showed up here concerned about Adrian," Jess tapped her foot against the tile floor, a sign of her frustration over the entire situation. "You two managed to stow your bullshit and come together--"

"We can stow our bullshit for the sake of our family," Or in the presence of a common enemy. "But at the end of the day, we ain't family anymore. There's too much bad blood between us, too much betrayal."

"Tommy, you can't just say we're not family and make it so," Jess sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. "I mean, Jamie's been your brother since you were a kid, but for Adrian and me, Jamie's been our brother our whole lives. We don't see him any differently than we see you. We love him the same way, you can't ask us to just stop."

"I'm not asking you for that," He couldn't control how their family felt about one another, and he wouldn't try if he could. "This shit between me and Ghost is between me and Ghost."

"No, it's not. Adrian was in the crossfire yesterday when Jamie shot at you. Tasha and the kids will always get caught in the middle because they love you both. It’s never just the two of you," Jess argued, eyes red and tired. "You both started this war, but the family is twisted up in it. If you can't make peace, we're all going to have to choose sides, and we can't do that, it'll tear us all apart."

"What you want me to do, Jess?"

"Find a way to work it out."

* * *

Tending to Deran's bar while he was away wasn't as exicting as Craig thought it might be. It was tedious and boring and took all the fun out of the actual experience of going to a bar. It sure as hell didn't help matters that he had to be their first thing in the damn morning to accept deliveries and shit, or that certain people took the open back door as an invitation to come in even when the sign outside clearly read 'closed.'

"That door is open for the delivery guy!" Craig shouted through the bar as he unpacked a box of draft beer. "If you're not the delivery guy, fuck off!"

"Well, that's not the best way to attract customers," A man declared as he moseyed into the bar like he fucking belonged there. “If I was a customer, I might take offense to that kind of language."

"Who the hell are you?" The dude looked vaguely familiar, Craig had seen him somewhere at some point in his life, but he couldn't place him at the present moment. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Detective Pearce," The man grinned as he introduced himself. "You would be Craig William Cody, Janine Cody's middle son."

"Detective Pearce? You got to be fucking kidding me," Craig had half a mind to slam the dude's head against the counter, just on the principal of it. “Jesus, man, you’re like a dog with a bone.”

“It’s not your bone.”

“Okay, I’ll bite,” The asshole had taken the time to come all the way to the bar, the least Craig could do was feign interest. “Whose bone is it?”

“Andrew Cody and Adrian Dolan’s,” Pearce reported, leaning against the bar. “I need to know where they are. Adrian’s public defender claims he is in New York dealing with a family emergency. I think Andrew and Deran are with him.”

"So what if they are?" Unless Craig was seriously out of the loop on things, Pearce had no reason to be on the lookout for them. "What do you want with them?"

"Some new information has come to light on an old case," Pearce answered without going into specifics. "I need to ask them a few questions."

"You need to question Pope and Adrian about a case?" Okay, color Craig intrigued. "Together? You have a case that you think involves the two of them _**together**_? Seriously?"

"They do make an odd couple, don't they?" Peace chuckled, amusement dancing in his eyes. "You see, I think Deran is the connecting piece, but I can't prove that just yet, so for now it's just Adrian and Andrew."

"Well, I don't know anything about that."

"I'm not surprised," Pearce clucked. "They don't tell you much, do they?"

"No, they don't," Craig would mope about that later. "They didn't even tell me where they were going, so I don't know how much help I can be to you."

"Right," Pearce snorted, tapping his fingers over the counter. "You know, your brother and Adrian have significant prison sentences ahead of them. You could help them avoid further charges by putting me in touch with them, giving me an address or a phone number to reach them."

"Adrian's shit got quashed, immunity or something," That was the last Craig had heard, anyway, but he supposed it was possible things had changed in the last couple of days. "And you don't have shit on Pope."

"On the contrary, I've got a solid case against the both of them," Pearce said confidently, puffing his chest out. "You see, when Adrian's immunity deal went through without my consent--"

"It wasn't your case man." The dude might have stuck his nose in things, but that was as far as it went. "The DEA entertained your, uh, fantasies for a while, but once they realized you were full of shit they decided to honor the deal. They didn't need your consent to do that."

"I was understandably upset at the gross injustice, as you can imagine," Pearce acknowledged with a put-upon sigh. "So I started looking a little deeper into Adrian, something I should have done when his name first came across my desk. Well, wouldn’t you know, that the deeper I looked into Adrian, the closer I got to your family, to Andrew."

"I'm not buying it, man," It was just too fucking strange to think of Adrian and Pope teaming up together for any reason let alone to commit a crime together. "If you would have said Deran and Adrian, then no doubt, I'd be tripping all over myself wondering what the fuck, but Pope and Adrian, come on."

"Oh, Deran's involved somehow, as I said, but the extent of his involvement is what I'm not sure of yet," Pearce hummed. "So, where are they?"

"No idea."

"I will charge you with obstruction."

"That's your prerogative, man," Craig couldn't control what the asshole chose to do. "It’s not going to change the fact that I don't know a goddamn thing."

* * *

Adrian's plan to spend the day with his niece was cut short by Jason's request for a meeting. He dropped the little girl off with her mother and headed to the warehouse with a weird sense of urgency and nervousness settling in his chest. He didn't know what Jason wanted, but the wide-berth the rest of the Serbs gave him as he entered the warehouse probably wasn't a good sign.

"I don't like your personal problems showing up at my front door. I have enough of your brother's personal problems, I do not need yours as well," Jason scolded him, an air of disappointment surrounding him. "You were supposed to be different. You were supposed to have a handle on things."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Although, Adrian's list of 'personal problems' was a short one, it was fairly easy to determine the culprits from the slim list of suspects. "Fucking Codys."

"They showed up this morning, trying to plead their case," Jason divulged, nostrils flaring. "They're nearby, unharmed."

"I'm sorry," Adrian should have known they were off doing something stupid as soon as he realized they weren't at the loft. "This is exactly something they would do, but I didn't think... I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize for them. They aren't your responsibility. Their actions aren't yours," Jason said pragmatically. "But they are from this point forward."

"What?"

"With this misstep, they have two strikes against them," Jason held up his index and middle fingers. "They were warned, yet they still show no respect for you or my organization."

"Agreed." Adrian didn't take it personally, the Codys didn't show anyone respect.

"They are going to learn respect, you will teach them," Jason smirked, so fucking pleased with himself that it struck a chord of apprehension in Adrian. "Consider them -- their family -- your new crew."

"Oh, no," Hell no. _**Hell the fuck no.**_ "That's, um, that's not going to work. They are never going to go along with that."

"They will."

"They won't," Adrian had known the bastards most of his life, they did not listen to people like him. "They are conditioned to listen to their mother and their mother only. In her absence, her death in this case, uh, any person of the female persuasion who is controlling and skilled in the art of manipulation will do. The last I checked, I didn’t fit that bill."

"You'll figure it out," Jason lips twisted in a manic smile. "If you don't, I will kill them."

"Of course you will," Because that's how things were, the only options they had were to do as their told or die. "Out of curiosity, why do you want them to work with me? Why not your organization or Tommy's? Why are you choosing the one person they are never going to listen to?"

"They would push back against me and Tommy, and we would have to kill them," Jason commented, sounding bored by the thought of it. "They won't push back against you, because they won't take you seriously."

"That's exactly the problem," How was he supposed to be their boss if they didn't take him seriously? "They'll laugh off anything I have to say."

"You have the advantage of knowing who they are, how they operate. You've had years to observe how they do what they do," Jason remarked, a sinister note to his tone. "You can and will use that knowledge to get them to follow you, to do as they are told."

"Look, Jason, I can't do this," There was absolutely no way he could ever get the Codys under his control, and he didn't want to. "Even if they did follow me, I could never trust them."

"You don't need to trust your whole crew, just one," Jason corrected, dismissive of his own men scattered around the building. "And you have one, the girl."

"I do have the girl—the woman," He was unsure of her true loyalties at the moment, but in the end, he knew she was in the same position he was where the Codys were concerned, an easily cast off piece of ass. "I don't think she's going to feel any better about this situation than I do."

"This isn't a negotiation, Adrian," Jason's voice hardened. "If you want them to walk out of here with their lives, you will lead them out."

"You know, I thought I had you figured out," Adrian must have made a few miscalculations along the way. "I mean, you’re on the fence about Tommy. His feud only causes you problems, but you keep him around because he amuses you."

"And he earns for me."

"This is New York City, you can't throw a stone without hitting a drug dealer," They were a dime a dozen in any big city. "You can find one that can earn just as much without the issues that come with keeping Tommy around."

"You want me to...let him go?"

"No, I'm just saying that I understand why you haven't," Well, that wasn't for a lack of trying, but if the guy really wanted to take Tommy out, he would've hired someone other than Jamie to get the job done. "I don't understand what your play is with me. I'm not amusing, compared to my brother I'm downright boring. I've earned for you, but not as much as someone who’s been in this business more than five minutes could earn for you. Aside from keeping Tommy on a leash, I'm not sure why you want me here."

"You have potential," Jason replied with a smile. "Where that potential will be most useful to me remains to be seen."

"Which is why you keep giving me new jobs," Jobs that Adrian wasn't qualified for in any way. "I'll be straight with you. The SoCal distro thing was never going to work out. Rodolfo, your LA distro, he is better suited for that. The job you gave me yesterday, being your fixer or whatever, that's more my speed, so long as I don't have to kill anybody."

"You will have to kill someone eventually. Mediation doesn't work for everyone," Jason snickered. "However, with the Codys working under you, you can have one of them pull the trigger for you."

"I would never ask them to do that."

"Your conscience is going to hinder your growth in this business, you should ignore it," Jason advised. "It's a useless thing, a conscience."

"We'll have to agree to disagree there," Adrian considered it a sign of humanity. "So what happens now?"

"You take your new little worker bees and you go," Jason signaled to one of his men, Drago, standing by closet door. "That's if you're willing to take them."

"Oh, I'm sure they'll make me regret it," Adrian gave it an hour at the most before he was cursing himself for choosing to accept Jason's terms rather than leaving the Cody brothers to rot. "But I'll take them."

Drago ushered Deran and Pope out of the supply closet, pushing them forward. They didn’t look any worse for wear, there weren’t any new injuries visible to the naked eye, leading Adrian to believe Jason had been honest about leaving them unharmed.

“I’ll let you take it from here,” Jason patted him on the back. “Have a good day, gentleman.”

Adrian shot the brothers a withering glare before turning to leave the warehouse, the heavy plod of their footfalls trailing after him to the curb where he’d parked his borrowed car.

"Adrian!" Deran called out to him, jogging to keep up with his longer strides. "Adrian. Hey. Stop."

"You got here on your own, you can get back to the apartment on your own," Adrian sure as hell was not in the right frame of mind to be trapped in an enclosed space with them. "You're going to get your stuff and go back to Oceanside. Tonight."

"Hey, what did Jason say to you?" Deran asked, grabbing Adrian by the shoulder and whirling him around. "We couldn't hear shit in that closet. What did he say?"

"I'll be in the car," Pope announced, removing himself from the impending argument.

"Do you have any idea what you and Pope stepped into today?" Adrian questioned Deran once it was just the two of them. "This isn't Oceanside. Jason's not just some asshole from around the way. You can't make a run at him and expect to walk away free and clear. There are consequences to that shit here."

"What did Jason say?"

"You work for me. You and Pope and Craig and your idiot nephew," It didn't sound any more appealing coming out of Adrian's mouth than it had Jason's. "You all work for me now."

"Okay," Deran grinned, punching Adrian's shoulder lightheartedly. "I can work with that."

* * *

It was difficult to make the rounds to say goodbye to her extended family in New York when Jess had a napping toddler to contend with. Rather than drag her daughter all over the city, she asked that family to come to her, only one member opted to accept that proposal.

"Sorry, I'm late," Tasha apologized, joining her sister at the table. "I had to pick 'Riq up from school and then got my ass chewed out by your brother."

"What did Jamie get his panties in a twist about now?" Jess knew it couldn't be Tommy, he wasn't stupid enough to get in Tasha's face, no matter how badly he thought she fucked up. "He do something that he's decided to blame you for?"

"Oh, I accept my responsibility in it," Tasha pressed a hand to her chest. "But of course it is_** all**_ my fault, he had nothing to do with it whatsoever. He is an innocent bystander left to clean up the carnage."

"Carnage of what?" Jess asked, cocking her head to the side. "What happened?"

"'Riq got expelled from school," Tasha muttered, pursing her lips. "For selling drugs."

"Where the hell is 'Riq getting drugs?" While their family's world revolved around the drug game, it was all benefit Riq and the other kids, to give them a better life, not to damn them to the street corner to sling dope. "Jamie's out of the game, and Tommy wouldn't--"

"No, it wasn't Tommy or Ghost," Tasha assured her. "It was Kanan."

"Kanan?" Jess scowled, face pinched in confusion. "Is he reaching out from beyond the grave?"

"Something like that. ‘Riq said he took the pills from one of Kanan's stash houses after he died," Tasha huffed, shifting in her seat. "And, you know, I'm not the one who welcomed Kanan back into our lives when he got out of prison. It wasn't one of my employees who gave Kanan access to Tariq, who helped Kanan manipulate him. I didn't do any of that shit, but it's my fault that it all happened because I wasn't paying enough attention."

"Jamie said that to you?" Jess wasn't surprised, ever since Jamie's piece of high school pussy walked back into his life and grabbed him by the balls, he became a judgmental piece of trash, fancying himself as some beacon a morality that was worthy of his first loves attention. "And where the hell was he during all this?"

"In prison for a little bit of it," Tasha admitted with a sigh. "Riding Angela's dick for the rest of it."

"Well, he's a man, he probably thought his fatherly duties were complete as soon as he spurted his junk inside you," Jess and Adrian's dad had been like that, Jess was happy her own daughter had dodged that particular bullet, so far at least. "I'm sorry, Tasha."

"We both made Tariq. We both raised him. We are both responsible for him and how he is, who he is," Tasha acknowledged, the stress of the situation sitting heavily on her shoulders. "I'm not sure why Ghost doesn't understand that."

"I'm sure if 'Riq was everything Jamie wanted him to be, he would take full credit and responsibility," Success was easier to accept than failure, especially for a parent when it came to their child. "So, what are you going to do about 'Riq? I don't really see a scared straight scenario working on him."

"Man, I don't know," Tasha threw her hands in the air. "I was kind of hoping maybe you would talk to him for me."

"Because I, a thirty-two year old white woman understand the struggle of a young black man?"

"Because you are the only one in this family not dealing drugs,” Tasha reasoned, crossing her arms over her chest. “Right?"

"Right."

"Shit. Good," Tasha sagged in her chair, relieved. "I thought we were all fucked."

"Wait, I'm the only one?" Jess quirked a brow. "Something you want to tell me?"

"After I opened the daycare, this asshole who runs the block rolled up on me at closing, told me to pay him or he'd burn the place down," Tasha rolled her eyes at the cheap threat. "I thought about it and decided to make him a better offer. Instead of paying him, I'd sell for him, and we'd both make some money."

"Okay," Jess wasn't in Tasha's situation, she wasn't going to judge her choices. "You're being careful, though, right? Yas and 'Riq can't lose you, Tash."

"I'm doing this for them, so I can take care of them."

"So I really am the only one in this family not in the drug game..."

"And it better fucking stay that way,” Tasha declared with a look that implied it was nonnegotiable. “Something happens to me and Ghost, the kids go to you."

"I know," They'd had contingencies for the kids set up since Tariq and Raina were born, a plan in place so the children were never left alone or lost to the system. "I just hope it never comes to that. They need you and Jamie."

"Well, I don't plan on going anywhere."

"Good," Jess wasn't sure if their family could take another loss. "So, Tommy wants to do a family dinner tonight. You up for it?"

"'Keisha going to be there?"

"Yeah."

"Then it's probably not a good idea,” Tasha frowned. “She kind of hates me right now.”

“She can get over it for one night,” Jess didn’t want to have a goodbye dinner without her sister. “Come on. Please.”

“How about breakfast before you go?” Tasha suggested an alternative. “You, me, the kids, Adrian, and Tommy, if ‘Keisha gives him permission.”

“I can do breakfast.”

* * *

Normally, Tommy wouldn't go to his brother for counsel or an alibi, he didn't want the kid to carry the weight of his decisions. However, Tommy was running low on friends, people he could trust in the life, as it was, his little brother seemed to be the only one left on that already short list.

"We alone here?" Tommy asked, stepping into the deceptively quiet apartment. "Anyone else around?"

"Jess is in the shower. Charlie's watching cartoons," Adrian gestured to the toddler reclined on the sofa, eyes glued on the TV. "If Deran and Pope know what's good for them, they'll be at the airport, catching a flight home."

"I don't think you're that lucky," Tommy doubted the brothers would go far without their luggage, which was currently collecting dust in his living room. "They do something to piss you off today?"

"They can't go a single day without screwing something up or making life more difficult for someone else," Adrian groused, tinkering around the kitchen, opening and shutting cupboards, keeping his hands busy. "It doesn't matter, just more bullshit. What's going on with you? Still got a bit until dinner. Mom hasn't even come back with the groceries yet."

"I, uh, I wanted to talk to you about something. There's something I need to do, but, I, um," Tommy cleared his throat, gathering his thoughts. "I need you to-- 'Cause of all that shit that went down between you and the Codys, I need you to understand that this ain't the same thing. What I gotta do, it ain't the same thing."

"What's going on, Tommy?"

"Last night, after all that shit with Potsy--"

"_**Pope.**_"

"When I was on my way to 'Keisha's, I got a call from Proctor," Tommy hadn't thought much of it at the time, but in retrospect it was more than a little strange. "He wanted me to meet up with him at the park, so I did."

"Your lawyer wanted to meet with you at a park in the middle of the night?" Adrian didn’t try to mask his suspicion. "About what?"

"There was a witness to something me and Ghost did a couple years ago," Tommy wasn't going to do into a lot of detail, there were just some things his little brother didn't need to know. "She came forward recently, wanted justice for her old man, planned to testify against us. Proctor told Ghost first, expected him to handle it."

"Handle it..." Adrian flinched, the words triggering something inside of him. "Did he?"

"He tried to pay her off, it didn't work," Big fucking surprise there. "So Proctor gave me the address of her safe house, wanted me to deal with her."

"Your lawyer wanted you to commit murder," Adrian narrowed his eyes. "Why? Is he involved in whatever this chick has on you?"

"Nope," That shit predated Proctor's tenure with them by a few months. "He thinks the prosecutors will go after him next, says we're all connected or some shit."

"What does the prosecution have on him?"

"That's a good fucking question," One Tommy would have asked if he didn't have more pressing things to trip over. "I'm more worried about what he's got on me, to be honest."

"He's your lawyer, Tommy, he's got a lot of shit on you," Adrian grumbled, scrubbing a hand down his face. "But it's all protected or whatever, right? I mean, he can't say anything to anyone about it, can he?"

"I don't think so. He's not supposed to," Unless Tommy had seriously misinterpreted the whole attorney-client privilege thing. "But when I was at the witness’s safe house, I overheard this fed, Saxe, tell her that he had someone else willing to testify, said it was mine and Ghost's lawyer."

"Are you sure?"

"I know what I heard."

"Are you sure he was telling the truth?" Adrian clarified his question. "Feds lie all the time to get their way. I know what you have to do if your lawyer’s a rat, so I'm asking you, Tommy, are you sure about Proctor?"

"When the cops pressed you about the Codys, you didn't run," He probably should have, given how the Codys reacted, but he stayed and Tommy respected that decision. "You stayed until your boy forced you out."

"I didn't think I had any reason to run," Adrian shrugged. "I didn't give the cops anything."

"Exactly. Innocent men don't run," They stayed, despite the danger, and handled their business. "Proctor? He ran right to Ghost."

"What do you mean?"

"He and his kid are staying at the penthouse with Ghost and Tariq," That information had found its way to Tommy through a text message from Tasha. "He don't trust the cops to protect him, so he went to Ghost, 'cause he knows me and Ghost are on the outs."

"And because he's not testifying against Jamie," Adrian deduced, lips set in a grim line. "So what could he give the feds about you that doesn't implicate Jamie too?"

"Angela," Tommy should have fucking known that shit was going to come back and bite him in the ass. "He knows I killed Angela."

"Shit," Adrian sighed, hanging his head. "So you have to...before he can testify."

"Yeah. Yeah, I gotta go deal with this Proctor situation," He couldn't afford to wait another day, it had to be dealt with as soon as possible, unfortunately, dealing with it would almost certainly make him late for the dinner he insisted on having. "So if anyone asks where I been..."

"You've been here all day," Adrian said obediently, the lie rolling off his tongue in such a way that it would sound like truth even to a trained ear. "Well, not _**here**_, but with me. You've been with _**me**_ all day."

"Good."

“Hey, Tommy?”

“Yeah?”

“Not his kid, okay?”

“I don’t hurt kids, Adrian,” He'd like to know why his brother thought he would, but that was a conversation best saved for another time. “The little girl will be all right. Tariq’s going to get her out of the penthouse before I get there. He’ll make sure she gets somewhere safe.”

“Okay.”

* * *

Deran was smart enough to recognize that it would be a pisspoor idea to follow Adrian back to the loft after their morning with Jason. Adrian had been giving off major 'fuck off' vibes, was so on edge that one more argument was likely to take a violent turn. Deran wasn't up for being on the receiving end of another beating or watching Pope attack Adrian to protect him, so he decided to it was best if he and Pope stayed out of the way for a while, give Adrian some space and a chance to cool off.

They wandered around for a few hours, sightseeing like tourists visiting the city for the first time. Eventually, they found their way to a pier, feeling more at home near the water. Deran bought them each a cup of weak coffee from a vendor on the sidewalk while Pope paced back and forth with his cellphone practically glued to his ear.

"That Craig?" Deran asked as he approached his brother. "You tell him what's going on?"

"Did I tell him we now work for the Serbian mafia? Yeah," Pope snapped, shoving his phone into his pocket. "Yeah, I told him. He didn't understand it anymore than I do."

"We're working for Adrian not the Serbs," There was an important distinction, in Deran's opinion. "What part of it don't you or Craig get?"

"Why you're not more upset, for one," Pope responded curtly, taking one of the coffees for himself. "You're almost happy about it."

"It's all bullshit, Pope, we're not actually working for anyone," It was a show, a sham. "Adrian said what he had to say to placate Jason and get us out of there."

"You think it was Adrian's idea," Pope scoffed. "Not the impression I got, considering how pissed off he was."

"Yeah, well, I think that was for my benefit," Deran wasn't going to waste time crying over it. "He said he wasn't mad anymore, said he was too tired to be angry, but I don't know."

"Look, I really don't give a fuck about your relationship drama," Pope muttered, swigging from his coffee. "But if that shit with Jason was you bullying your way into a part of Adrian's life that he wanted you clear of, forcing him to deal with you..."

"Talking to Jason was your idea."

"You didn't put up a fight," Pope glowered at his brother. "I was trying to keep us off his hit list. I think you had other ideas."

"Staying close to Adrian keeps us off Jason and Tommy's hit lists," It was a bonus Deran was counting on. "Jess told you he was protecting us, right? So long as we’re close to him, we're safe. What the fuck does it matter how I keep us close?"

"I think we'd all prefer you keep us close by screwing Adrian," Pope said crudely. "Instead of getting us screwed by the Serbians."

"Yeah, I'd rather be screwing Adrian too, but..." Given Adrian's recent attitude toward the idea of sex, Deran figured they had a long way to go before they were climbing back into bed together. "I don't see that happening anytime soon."

"That might be because you keep doing the exact opposite of what he wants you to do," Pope admonished with a long-suffering sigh. "You two fucked each other up."

"I know, I was there."

"You told Adrian to leave Oceanside for his own good, and he did. He’s told you to leave New York for your own good, you chose to stay," Pope summarized recent events. "He knows better than to get involved in our business, so he stays out of it. He asked you to stay out of his business, and you went over his head to his boss and got our entire family involved in it."

"Is there a point to this?"

"He did what you asked him to do, kept his mouth shut to the cops, and left town," Pope said thoughtfully. "He's been trying to get you to leave since you got here because it's not safe for you. And, you know, I think he wants some distance too, and if that's the case, maybe you should give it to him."

"No," Distance was not a fucking option. "I'm not leaving."

"We can't stay here forever, Deran," Pope griped, shaking his head. "We have shit waiting for us in Oceanside. Those survivalist assholes are going to retaliate--"

"I don't give a fuck about the survivalist douchebags," As far as Deran was concerned, the retaliation for Smurf's suicide run should land firmly on the shoulders of her chosen heir apparent. "J's the boss now, right? They are his problem. Let him deal with it, I don't care how."

"We all pulled the job with Smurf-- for Smurf. None of us wanted to do it, it never felt right, but we did it. That makes it all of our problems," Pope argued, grabbing Deran by the arm, as if he thought he might storm off without an anchor. "This is a family problem, and you chose the family, remember? I told you that you could go. I told you, you could go with Adrian, and you chose to stay with us. You don't get to change your mind now."

"I'm fucking sick of hearing that bullshit," Adrian had told Deran the same thing, but it somehow felt more damning coming out of Pope's mouth. "I made a mistake."

"Did you?" Pope cocked his head to the side. "If Adrian had gone to Indonesia as planned, would you have changed your mind and followed him a day later?"

"Maybe I would have," It might have taken him weeks instead of days, but, yeah, Deran could see himself packing and bag and catching a plane or boat to join Adrian somewhere far away. "You guys would have done something to make me regret staying, and I would have--"

"You would have gone crawling back to him with your tail tucked between your legs, begging him to take you back, whining that your big brothers were mean to you," Pope remarked disparagingly. "He'd let you in too, even if he hated you, he would accept any connection to home to could get."

"Yeah, probably."

"You should have just gone with him," Pope sighed, rubbing his eyes. "I told you, you could go. I released you from the family. W-Why did you stay?"

"Are you really going to stand there and pretend like you were serious, like you and Craig didn't plan how to come at me so I'd stay? You getting all teary, telling me to go, Craig saying he needed me," It was all bullshit, Deran could see that now. "You guilted me into staying and you fucking know it."

"Whatever makes you feel better about bailing on Adrian, Deran," Pope sneered, pushing Deran way from him. "You know, if you had just gone with him, he would be out of the country right now, safely out of Pearce's reach."

"The fuck does Pearce have to do with anything?"

"He cornered Craig at your bar this morning, told him that Adrian and me are persons of interests in a case he's working."

"What case?"

"There's only one I can think of that involves the both of us."

* * *

Craig was a nice guy, you know, to an extent. He loved his family, tried to be there for them as much as he could, but he had to draw the line somewhere. It just so happened that line was located in his house, at least as far as his dead sister’s junkie best friend and his nephew were concerned.

"Look, man, I let you and Angela crash here last night, ‘cause it was late and all, but you gotta get the fuck out of here," Craig had allowed them into his home the previous night in the wake of the fire, but his house wasn't big enough for the whole family to take refuge on a long term scale."You have money, get a motel room or something."

"I've already got a place to go," J claimed, hitching his backpack over his shoulder. "You're going to have to talk to Angela yourself, but I heard her ask Renn if you had spare keys to Deran's house, since he's not using it right now."

"Pretty sure Deran would rather burn the place down," Even if Craig had a spare key to Deran's place, he wouldn't give it to Angela or anyone else. "She was your mom's friend, you can take her with you."

"She's Pope's girlfriend."

"Pope's not here," Craig wasn't quite sure if that made him lucky or unlucky. "He's busy trying to keep us all alive, dealing with Angela is the least you can do."

"I'll drop her off at a homeless shelter or something," J decided, completely void of any emotion. "We need to talk about retaliation for what happened to the house."

"That was retaliation for the hit you put out on Adrian," Craig pointed out, taking a beer out of the fridge and popping the cap off it. "We're not hitting back."

"If we do nothing, we'll look weak," J asserted, squaring his shoulders. "We have to do something."

"Compared to the Serbian mafia, we are fucking weak," It didn't bother Craig as much as it did the rest of his family. "Plus, circumstances have changed. We're all on the same side now."

"What does that mean?"

"Pope and Deran had a chat with the shot caller for the Serbs, Jason Micic or something," Craig didn't know exactly how high up the food chain Jason was, but he assumed it was pretty high. "They made a deal or something. We work for them -- or Adrian. We kind of work for Adrian now."

"The fuck we do," J growled, face flushed with anger. "We just got out from under Smurf. We are not working for anyone else."

"Except you, right? We're supposed to fall in line and follow you?" Craig wasn't fighting the change in leadership, but that didn't mean he was completely on board with it either. "You're the one who put us in the Serbs crosshairs. Pope and Deran, the deal they made today, it got us out of them. Don't you fucking dare do something else that's going to put us right back in them."

"Or what?" J asked, a challenging look in his eyes. "What are you going to do?"

"We'll tell them you're acting alone," They were not going to put the entire family at risk, the good of the many over the good of the one, and all that jazz. "We will let them have you."

"If you guys were going to turn on me, you would have done it when I talked to the cops after I first moved in."

"You are not irreplaceable to us."

"Sure I am."

* * *

Family dinners were for dysfunctional families. No one in their right mind would gather their relatives at a single table and expect it to go smoothly. It took a truly twisted individual to force people they supposedly loved to interact over a shared meal they also had to prepare together.

"This is barbaric," Adrian mumbled under his breath as he chopped vegetables on the countertop. "We don't do this. We are not family dinner people. We don't hate each other that much."

"Stop being so dramatic," Jess huffed, hip-checking him as she moved around the kitchen. "It's just dinner."

"Hey, where's Tommy at?" 'Keisha asked, sharing space at the stove with Kate. "This was his idea, right? He should be here."

"He'll be around later," Kate smiled knowingly, like she had some idea of where Tommy was and what he was doing. "He wouldn’t be much help anyway, he can't cook. It's good that you can, the last one, she couldn't."

"The last one? Her name was Holly, right?" 'Keisha questioned, trying to sound casual. "You know, Tommy never talks to me about any of his exes."

"Best to forget most of 'em," Kate said with a shrug of her shoulders. "Especially that last one, Holly or Molly, whatever her name was. Bad breakup, if you know wha--"

"Mom," Jess silenced their mother with a word of warning. "Tommy's business is Tommy's business."

"Oh, so Tommy's relationships are off limits, but mine are free for public consumption," Adrian snarked, glaring at his sister. "That seems fair."

"Well, if you choose to end your relationship with Deran the same manner Tommy did with Holly, any mention it would be off limits too," Jess retorted amiably, appearing almost hopeful of the prospect. "But seeing as Deran's currently sitting on the sofa beside my daughter watching Scooby Doo reruns, he's fair game."

"In what _**manner**_ did Tommy end things with Holly?" 'Keisha asked, tone growing serious. "What happened to her? She get in over her head? Couldn't handle the life? What?"

"She didn't like how close Tommy was to Jamie and Tasha, so she tried to get between them. She tried to break up our little family by pushing them out of his life," Jess offered the woman something that was neither the whole truth nor an outright lie. "She wasn't too bright, but you, you're a smart woman. You wouldn't try to tear apart our family, would you?"

"I ain't gonna make the same mistakes Red made, point-blank, period," LaKeisha claimed, hands on her hips. "I got Tommy on lock."

“Oh, boy,” Jess set down the utensils she was using. “’Keisha, there’s something—“

“Shut up, Jess,” Adrian hushed his sister while resisting the urge to set his brother’s girlfriend straight on a few misconceptions she had about her relationship with him. “You said it, Tommy’s business is Tommy’s business.”

“First of all, don’t tell me to shut up,” Jess whacked him upside the head. “Secondly, someone needs to tell her.”

“Not us,” Adrian wasn’t going to put himself in line for a Tommy Egan ass-kicking by spilling secrets to his girlfriend. “She knew exactly who Tommy was when she took up with him—“

“She is standing right here,” LaKeisha clucked, eyes flitting between the bickering siblings. “I can hear you.”

"Adrian," Pope interrupted as he stepped into the kitchen, leaving Deran alone with the toddler in the living room. "We need to talk about some things."

"No, we don't," Adrian had nothing to say to anyone bearing the name Cody until they learned to follow a simple instruction. "You need to go back to Oceanside, like I told you to."

"Yeah, Deran might be on board with you telling him what to do--"

"He never has been before," Deran liked to give orders, only ever taking them from one person, and that sure as hell wasn’t Adrian. "Doesn't have much of a choice now, not after that shit you pulled this morning."

"Craig, J, and me, we don't want any part of it," Pope remarked with a tight frown. "Deran's cool with working for you or Jason or whoever, but the rest of aren't."

"You should have thought about that before you went to Jason," If they had come to Adrian first, he might have been able to help them, but they went around him, and now it was out of his hands. "It can't just be Deran. Your family is a package deal, and lucky me, I'm the poor bastard who gets to deal with all of you."

"You can have Deran. He can work with you -- for you -- if that's what he wants. I will give him to you," Pope agreed to unshackle his brother from chains binding him to their family business. "But you have to get the rest of us out of this deal with the Serbians."

"You seem to be under the impression that I have any more a choice in this than you do," Adrian had been given two options and both of them sucked. "This was the only way to keep you alive."

"All I did was try to talk to the guy," Pope denied any nefarious intent in his or Deran's actions. "Show him that we weren't a threat to him or you."

"All you did was show him you were a problem that refuses to go away quietly," As if that wasn't blatantly obvious to anyone who knew their family longer than five minutes. "You want to know how Jason handles problems, it's similar to the way Smurf handles people who are questioned by the cops about family."

"Give me a fucking break."

"You could say Jason handles problems _**preemptively**_, so they don't become bigger problems," Adrian said loudly enough for Deran to hear, taking a small amount of pleasure watching him tense on the couch. "If I hadn't agreed to let you work for me, you would have been killed."

"Dude, your crime boss is making you take them on," Jess gaped, eyes wide in disbelief. "What the hell did you do to him to make him hate you that much?”

"I wish I knew," It felt like a punishment, but Adrian wasn't sure what he'd done to deserve it. "I thought I'd been a model employee."

"You're not a model anything," Pope belittled him. "At this point you and your psychotic brother are just thorns in my side."

"Welcome to my world, it's same for me with yours," Adrian didn’t care if it was karma or poetic justice, it was about fucking time they felt an inkling of what they made him feel. "You know, I never bought into the whole thing about you being nuts, so I'd appreciate if you didn't throw around words like that in reference to my brother."

"Your brother set Smurf's house in fire to prove a point."

"He didn't set you on fire," Considering Tommy had used fire as a means of torture in the past, the Codys were lucky he stuck to just arson this time around. "Take the win."

"Let's not forget you're known for being a pyro too, Pope, so why don't you do us all a favor and shelve the patented Cody hypocrisy," Jess suggested, dismissing Pope and whatever bullshit he had left to spew. "I thought that was more Deran's thing anyway."

"It is," Adrian confirmed, expecting the man in question to throw a scathing look over his shoulder. "What's his problem anyway? He was almost chipper when I left you guys at Jason's, now he's all pissed off again."

"He's not pissed," Pope grunted, hunching his shoulders. "He's nervous."

"About what?" Adrian asked knowing full well the answer was going to be something he didn't want to hear. "What's happened now?"

"You happen to talk to your lawyer today?" Pope inquired rather than just giving him the straight answer he was looking for. "Maybe have a missed call from him?"

"I had a missed call this afternoon," He had been driving at the time and let it go to voicemail, which he hadn't gotten around to checking. "I wasn't worried about it. I've been expecting him to call to tell me when I need to come in and finish up some paperwork."

"Pearce talked to Craig this morning, said he was working a new case, something to do with us," Pope gestured between the two of them. "Maybe you should call your lawyer back, see if it's legit."

"Maybe I should just check my voicemail." Adrian muttered, slipping his phone out of his pocket.

There were half a dozen message notifications displayed the screen, unread emails, texts, and voicemails. He skimmed the emails, Carter asking after Jess and Charlie, Tao checking in on him, and a few from friends from Queens that heard he was in town and wanted to hang out, all in all, nothing too important. The messages time-stamped for earlier in the day were another story…

_ **NEW MESSAGES ** _ **(3)**

**TOMMY:** _jobs done. on my way home._

**TOMMY:** _911 from ‘riq._

**TOMMY:** _keep ur head on a swivel ‘til u hear from me._

_ **NEW VOICEMAIL** _

_"Adrian, this is your public defender, Peter Kohl. I was contacted by Detective Pearce of the California State Police and the Assistant District Attorney this afternoon. New charges have been filed against you, including obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and possible accessory charges pertaining to an unsolved case from two years ago, the attempted murder of a man by the name of David Trager. There isn't yet a warrant out for your arrest, but you need to contact me immediately so we can avoid that. Please call me back as soon as poss--"_

The front door of the loft slammed open suddenly and Adrian fumbled the phone in his hands. Tommy and Jamie stomped in, both sweating and breathing heavily as they struggled to remain in control of themselves, looking equal parts angry and terrified. Their disheveled appearance, the earlier text from Tommy, it could all only mean only thing.

"What happened to Tariq?"

"Italians got him."

“What do we do to get him back?”

“Give them two million dollars.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next: The Codys are put to work. The family scrambles to raise the money to bring their missing member home. Deran and Adrian reach a tipping point in their relationship. Craig's hits an unexpected roadblock when he tries to handle a problem closer to home.


	6. You're Free to Go

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd.  
Chapter title comes from: [Bad Liar by Imagine Dragons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I203G1sMGDg)  
Gif sets: [Smurf Was Wrong](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/189309695706/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-smurf-was-wrong-loyalty), [Two Thieves](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/189207337551/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-two-thieves-loyalty), [Bullshitter](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/189362108876/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-bullshitter-loyalty), [Sacrifice](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/189013093301/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-sacrifice-loyalty)
> 
> Set during Power 6x06: Inside Man.

Adrian had seen Tommy’s Brooklyn warehouse fully stocked, boxes neatly organized in high stacks on the shelves, but it was nothing compared to the crates and pallets that had been delivered late in the night.

“Holy shit.”

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Tommy draped an arm around his shoulders, in surprisingly good spirits considering the circumstances. “What’s that look like to you, little brother, if not beautiful fucking dollar signs?”

“A life sentence,” Or two, depending on prior convictions. “I’m really glad Craig didn’t follow Deran and Pope out here. If there was an orgy going on in the corner, this would pretty much be his dream come true.”

“Mine too.”

“Didn’t you have to pay Jason with clean money for all this?” Money laundering was way below Jason’s pay grade. “Where’d you and Jamie come up with one million dollars of clean money so fast?”

“It’s some kind of loan from Rashad Tate,” Tommy said with a shrug. “Gotta have it back in twenty-four hours.”

“It’s always twenty-four hours,” It seemed to be the go-to timetable. “You know, Tommy, even with your primeras working around the clock, I don’t think they’re going to get all this product on the street in a day.”

“Ghost said he’s got his own primeras out hustling, but you right, it probably ain’t gonna be enough,” Tommy sighed, his previously upbeat mood dissipating. “Think you can hit up some old friends; see about unloading some of this?”

“I can make some calls.”

“Yo, boss!” Spanky called out as he and Grim strolled into the warehouse. “What the hell is all this product in here? It look like a damn Amazon commercial.”

“Yeah, and I need it all moved in the next twenty-four hours,” Tommy brought his crew up to speed. “And I need it done with no questions asked. Got it?”

“Got it,” Spanky nodded, totally on board with that. “Quick question. Why twenty-four hours?”

“What the fuck does ‘_no questions asked_’ mean? Am I speaking English here?” Tommy spluttered, gaze flickering between Grim and Adrian, seeking an answer for an obviously rhetorical question. “And one more thing, I kinda can’t pay you for the job.”

“I don’t work for free,” Spanky pushed his glasses up his nose. “You on some real questionable labor practice shit right now.”

“All right, look, it’s for Tariq all right?” Tommy admitted, deciding his crew deserved the truth if he wanted them to do the job. “Vincent snatched him, and I need the cash to get him back.”

“Ghost’s kid?” Grim questioned with concern.

“You was just trying to kill that motherfucker,” Spanky reminding his boss. “He was just trying to kill you.”

“You must be new here,” Adrian snorted. “This is kind of what they do. They want to kill each other, but they still love each other. It’s family, you know?”

“Not the point, killer,” Spanky scowled. “They was just trying to kill each other, now they want us to be on some Make a Wish Foundation shit.”

“You know I’m good for it, Spanky,” Tommy tried to reassure the shorter man that he’d eventually get paid for the work, just not as quickly as he was accustomed to. “All right? Relax.”

“Fuck you being good for it.”

“I’ll do it,” Grim accepted the job without complaint. “You just get me back later.”

“Thank you, B.G.,” Tommy clapped his friend on the back. “So, Spank, do I gotta find a replacement for you or what?”

“Nah, I guess I’m in too,” Spanky relented. “Solidarity’s a motherfucker.”

“Good. Thank you,” Tommy said gratefully. “Now, get to work.”

* * *

Jess was a mother, she had a child, she understood the strength of that bond, understood it was something a father could never fully appreciate. She knew the phantom tug on the bond between Tasha and Tariq must have sending spikes of anxiety through Tasha’s heart. Jamie— _**Ghost**_ – didn’t get it, if he had, he wouldn’t have been so against the idea of alerting Tasha to her son’s troubles.

“Tash, I need to talk to you,” It was her obligation as a mother and as Tasha’s sister to warn her of the danger her son was in, even if her idiot brother didn’t agree with that decision. “I’ve gotta talk to you about Tariq.”

“What?” Tasha’s hand stilled over the handle of her car door. “What are you doing here, Jess?”

“Mrs. St. Patrick,” A rat-faced asshole sauntered up the sidewalk toward them. “Can I have a word?”

“That depends,” Tasha adjusted the purse strap on her shoulder. “Who the hell are you?”

“My name is Vincent,” He introduced himself. “Tariq says hi.”

“How the hell do you know my son?”

“Maybe your friend would like to take a walk,” Vincent suggested, leveling Jess was an expectant look, as if he really believed she would just totter off. “So we can talk privately, Mrs. St. Patrick.”

“Her_** sister**_ is going to stay right where she is,” Jess stood firm at Tasha’s side. “I already know what you’re here to say, so just say it.”

“What are you here to tell me?” Tasha asked, reaching for Jess’s hand instinctively. “How do you know my son?”

“Your husband didn’t tell you? Tariq and I are business associates,” Vincent revealed, a conniving smirk playing on the sniveling prick’s lips. “Well, we were until I caught him trying to cheat me and screwing with the integrity of my business, trying to pass off baby aspirin as real product.”

“If you put your hands on my son,” Tasha took a calculating step forward, the threat of violence in every movement. “I will—“

“Don’t worry, I haven’t touched a hair on his head,” Vincent assured her. “But he’s gonna stay with me until Ghost and Tommy make good.”

“And how much is that going to cost?”

“$2million,” Vincent replied, clasping his hands together in front of him. “Or I’m going to kill the kid.”

“I don’t know how long Tariq’s been working with you,” Jess was out of the loop in that respect, but she figured everyone else was as well. “But I don’t think there’s any way he could have moved $2million worth of weight for you.”

“True. The extra’s interest. I want $2million within twenty-four hours,” Vincent set his terms. “Now, if I were you, I’d make sure Tommy and Ghost get it done. Otherwise, I gotta do what I gotta do. You understand me?”

“Yeah,” Tasha nodded. “We understand.”

* * *

The loft was ground zero for bullshit, Tommy didn’t know when or why that happened, but for some reason that’s the way it was. He wasn’t going to whine about it, it’s not like they had many other options, Tasha’s new place was too small, and he’d lit Ghost’s penthouse up like a motherfucker just a few hours ago when he’d taken out Proctor’s ass. His place was as good as any, he supposed, it certainly had enough space to fit everyone and their goddamn brother.

It just so happened that everyone and their brother had packed themselves into his apartment by the time Tommy, Adrian, and Grim had returned from the warehouse in the pre-dawn hours of the morning. LaKeisha and Jess were leaned over the pool table, studying papers spread over the green felt. Tasha and Ghost were in the middle of an argument, shouting at one another like they were the only two people in the room. The Codys, on the other hand, were twiddling their thumbs, appearing bored out of their skulls up until Adrian walked into their field of vision.

“No,” Adrian shut the brothers down before either of them could utter a word. “Until we get Tariq back, the only thing anyone here is talking about is how to get Tariq back. There is nothing else on the table.”

“Is there something else on the table?” If there was another crisis that needed to be dealt with, Tommy would prefer to know sooner rather than later, he didn’t need bullshit spread out for dramatic effect. “Something else going on?”

“Nothing that can’t wait another day,” Adrian claimed, shooting the Codys a sharp glare that cautioned them against saying any different. “Tariq’s the priority.”

“And when were you even going to tell me any of this shit was happening?” Tasha shouted at her ex-husband. “What the hell did our son get himself into this time?”

“It’s okay, Tasha,” Tommy broke into the couples fight, hoping to stop it in its tracks. “Tariq just got in a little over his head with Vincent, but we’re gonna get him back, I swear.”

“Wait a minute. ‘_**We**_’?” Tasha stared daggers at her ex. “So you’re back in the game, Ghost?”

“Tasha, can you think of another way, huh?” Ghost challenged his wife to come up with a better idea. “I gotta fucking be back in the game to get our son back.”

“Everyone’s in the game today,” It was all hands on deck as far as Tommy was concerned. “We all got jobs to do.”

“All of us?” Pope rose from the sofa. “This has nothing to do with me or Deran. We’ve got other things we could be—”

“Deran’s going with Ghost,” Adrian spoke over the other man to dole out instructions. “Ghost can put him on the street with the primeras or find another job for him to do.”

“The hell he will,” Deran refused the order. “I’m not slinging dope on some street corner.”

“You’re gonna do what the fuck you’re told,” Tommy snarled at the younger man. “You work for Adrian now, right? That means you do what he tells you to do. This ain’t gonna be no fucking cakewalk.”

“No, you know what, let’s ignore the fact that you work for me and look at the big picture,” Adrian proposed pragmatically. “A child is missing—h-has been kidnapped. You can pretend for one day that you’re a compassionate person who cares about someone other than yourself. You can act out of your own free will to help someone who needs it. I know it’s a tall order, but give it a try.”

“That works too, I guess,” Not the route Tommy would have taken, but if it got the job done he would take it. “He goes with Ghost, and Potsy’s coming with me.”

“It’s not Potsy,” The eldest Cody grumbled. “It’s Pope.”

“It’s Andrew,” Adrian muttered, rolling his eyes.

“Can we fucking focus, please?” Tasha interjected, annoyance lacing her tone. “My son is missing and we’ve all got to pull our weight to get him back, so I’ll clean any of the money you make through my daycare.”

“Won’t need your help,” ‘Keisha said with a cluck of her tongue. “I’m doing it.”

“Oh, hell no. Okay, I’m not being left out of this, ‘Keisha. Tariq is my son,” Tasha put her foot down, unwilling to stand by and do nothing while her boy was in danger. “I mean, if you want to clean the money, fine, but bring me your books so I can show you how to do it right.”

“No.”

“Either you give her the books or you don’t wash the money,” Jess laid down an ultimatum to the other woman. “It’s her kid on the line here, so I don’t care what personal beef you’ve got with her. If you want to help us, you’ll stow your shit. If you’re going to continue being difficult just to stick it to her and feel like the top bitch in the room, then you know where the goddamn door is. We don’t have time for your childish bullshit.”

“You know what, ‘Keisha,” Tommy stepped between his sister and his girlfriend before one of them started through punches. “W-We could use Tasha’s help. Let her help.”

“Let her?” Adrian quirked a brow. “Tasha doesn’t need permission to help find her own son. If ‘Keisha has a problem with that, ‘Keisha can go.”

“Tommy, you gonna let them talk to me like that?” ‘Keisha asked with a tone that suggested he make the right choice now or suffer the consequences later. “Huh? Tommy!”

“No. No, baby, of course not. I-I’ll talk to them about it, but not now,” That was a conversation best saved for, oh, never, if Tommy wanted to keep what was left of his sanity intact. “Right now we need to get Tariq back.”

* * *

Craig was the only trustworthy family member left in Oceanside, so it fell to him to handle any problems that could arise until his brothers returned. One of those problems just so happened to be Pearce, but it was delicate, and with what little information Pearce had given him, he couldn’t be sure quite how to deal with it. When he’d finally spoken to Pope and gotten the details, the name of the witness, he knew what had to be done without having to be told.

“You’re not going after Dave,” Renn stopped him when he tried to slip out of the house unnoticed. “Hurting him isn’t the way you’re going to get Pope out of the mess Deran made.”

“What?” Craig wondered how she knew about Pope’s legal troubles when he sure as hell hadn’t told her. “I just found about that, how do you know?”

“A friend told me,” Renn didn’t give him a name, but she did take his gun off the counter and move it out of his reach. “He asked me to stop you from doing something stupid that would probably do more harm than good.”

“What friend?”

“Think on it a minute,” She advised him. “I’m sure it’ll come to you.”

“Dave?”

“Is that a joke?”

“Adrian?” That didn’t sound right, but neither had anything else regarding the kid lately. “Adrian got you involved in this shit?”

“Dude, I’ve been involved longer than you have.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Were they talking about a couple hours here or what? “How long have you known about what Pope did to this Dave guy?”

“Adrian told me Deran set one of you loose on Dave a few days after it happened,” Renn said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “We used to trade stories about all the fucked up shit you and Deran did to us. We couldn’t really talk about it with anyone else.”

“Right. Okay,” Craig wasn’t really sure how to respond to that. “So you guys are friends, and he asked you to get in the middle of this Dave stuff as, what, a favor?”

“We are friends, but this is business,” Renn clarified. “You take out a witness right after Pearce tells you he’s got a case, it’s going to blowback on more than just your family.”

“It’s business?” And now Craig was a little pissed off and worried about more than just Pope. “You’ve been working for Adrian? Dealing for him?”

“I work with him, not for him. It’s a partnership.”

“How long has that been going on?”

“It started when we got back from Mexico last year.”

“Oh, my god,” This shit had been going on under Craig’s nose for ten, eleven months? “You’ve been working with Adrian for almost a year and you didn’t tell me?”

“You don’t own me,” Renn narrowed her eyes. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

“You know I didn’t fucking mean it that way,” Fuck, it wasn’t like he expected her to tell him every little thing going on in her life, but this particular thing felt like a big deal that should have been brought up earlier. “I just… I mean… What the fuck?”

“I’ll tell you all about it if you stay home today,” Renn put forth a compromise he wasn’t sure he could reject. “I will tell you everything and you can report it back to Deran even though it has nothing to do with him. And, you know, the big stuff happened before either of us were really back together with you guys anyway.”

“Fine,” Craig planted is ass on the bar stool at the counter, wishing he wasn’t cutting back on his drug and alcohol use, he had a feeling a morning beer and a couple oxy were probably something he was going to need once they were finished with this conversation. “I’ll stand down, today, if you talk.”

“Okay,” Renn sat beside him. “Let’s talk.”

* * *

Adrian would have preferred to pay visits to his old friends on his own; it was just his luck his brothers decided to implement a ‘_no one goes out alone’_ policy. He was grateful that it was Grim he had by his side for the day, he was the one least likely to be judgmental or make a snarky comment about the company Adrian chose to keep.

“What about those Donnelly cats over in Hell’s Kitchen? They’re your people, right?” Grim asked, jotting down a list of buyers they had so far. “All they been through, they gotta need something to get them through the day.”

“They’re my cousins, and Jimmy’s the only user,” And Adrian didn’t feel comfortable selling to family. “None of them are dealers or hardcore enough to need a serious amount of this stuff.”

“Got it,” Grim scratched their names off the already short list. “You gonna tell me where we’re going or am I just along for the ride?”

“Well, I’m the one driving,” But he wasn’t a complete asshole, so he wouldn’t leave his buddy hanging. “Okay, so, um, the friends of mine we’re going to see, most of them are in the…entertainment industry. They’re willing to buy in bulk to supply their clientele.”

“By ‘_entertainment industry’_ you mean…”

“Well, Slink hosts this underground rave,” Adrian frequented those parties as a teenager and through his early twenties as a way to blow off steam while he was in town. “Lou, she, uh, she operates a, well, I guess you could call it a sex club, for lack of a better term.”

“S-Sex c-club,” Grim stuttered like a blushing virgin. “What do you get up to in a sex club?”

“What do you think?” For the record, Adrian had only attended on certain nights. “It’s not like it’s some place I went a lot, just once in a while when I was really, really pent up and—“

“I get it,” Grim held up a hand to silence him. “Should they be dealing drugs in a place like that? Makes consent a little hazy, yeah?”

“So does alcohol, but they serve that there too,” It wasn’t Adrian’s place of business, he couldn’t control what went on there. “After Lou, we’ll go see Felix and Klaus at _Unrestrained_.”

“Isn’t that a gay club?”

“Yeah,” A pair of Adrian’s friends had taken over the place after the original owner and her wife had retired to some place with warmer winters. “If it makes you uncomfortable—“

“It doesn’t,” Grim shook his head. “Just want to be clear on the details. We’re basically hitting up the party scene.”

“Mostly,” Adrian hit that scene pretty hard in his youth whenever he was in New York, it was easier for him to let go and be free for a while there than it was in Oceanside where he had to be careful and watch everything he said or did. “Who else would buy this much product at once? Aside from gangs that is, but I thought Tommy’s primeras had that area covered.”

“They do,” Grim confirmed with a nod. “You do have, you know, legit friends, somewhere, right?”

“Yes,” He had all sorts of friends, some that were deep in the life, like his brother, and others that were apple pie and had never touched an illegal substance in their lives. “You guys didn’t ask for legit, you asked for people who could buy a lot drugs on short notice.”

“No, I know,” Grim set the list on the dashboard. “Just making conversation, man.”

“Okay,” Well, if they were asking questions for the sake of asking them, Adrian had one of his own. “I know things are kind of crazy right now, but Tommy knows I can handle myself, and it’s not like I’m entering enemy territory or anything. It’s unusual for him to send me out with backup.”

“You can handle yourself,” Grim agreed. “But your head ain’t clear. Your boyfriend’s got you all twisted up.”

“It’s stupid, isn’t it?” Adrian hated himself for it. “All that’s going on with Tariq, Tommy and Ghost being at each other’s throats, and it’s my ex that’s got my head all screwed up.”

“Like you told Spanky, Tommy and Ghost are at war with each other every other week. And Tariq, he’s a kid, a teenager, it’s kind of his job to get into trouble. All that is normal shit,” Grim reasoned thoughtfully. “What happened between you and your boy must have been unexpected to have you fucked up like this.”

“It was and it wasn’t,” A part of Adrian had always known he and Deran wouldn’t grow old together, but he’d always assumed it was because neither of them would live long enough to grow old. “I never thought it would play out quite like this.”

“You killed a man to protect him,” Grim mentioned brusquely. “That’s gotta mean there’s something still there, right?”

“Yeah, there is,” Adrian feared there probably always would be. “But it’s not enough, it’s supposed to be, but it’s not. You can’t build a life with someone on love alone. You have to want the same things, be in the same place – I don’t mean proximity or whatever, but, you know in the grand scheme of things. Deran, he finally has everything he’s ever wanted, he’s who he wants to be, and I-I don’t. I’m not there yet.”

“You think you gotta be at the same place in life with someone to be with them?” Grim furrowed his brows. “That’s bullshit, man.”

“I don’t know if it’s for everyone, but it is for me and Deran. And it…it pisses me off, ‘cause I waited for so long for him to get it together and…” It was all for nothing, years wasted on someone who was never going to choose him, and he only had himself to blame. “You know what, never mind, I’m sorry. Don’t listen to me. I’m sorry.”

“Hey, I brought it up.”

“I shouldn’t have... I’m sorry,” The last thing Adrian wanted to do was invite more people into his relationship drama with Deran. “Let’s just…let’s get these pills where they’re going, so we can get paid and get Tariq home.”

“Let’s do it.”

* * *

Deran wasn’t a stranger to dealing drugs. He sold weed in junior high, been picked up by the cops for it a time or two. In his family’s sketchier years, after Baz had hooked up with Lucy, they brought coke over the border for her until Smurf decided the job wasn’t bringing in enough money. So, yeah, he had experience in the general area, just not in the way Ghost expected him to, standing on a street corner from sunrise to sunset and then some.

Deran wasn’t the only one out of his element. One of the guys Ghost had sent him out with, Alphonse, was even greener than he was, and far less interested in doing the job. After they had been dropped off on their designated corner, he had scanned their surroundings and promptly headed into a small market, leaving Deran outside with pockets full of cocaine and a variety of pharmaceuticals. Dude wasn’t gone more than a few minutes, but it was still longer than Deran would have liked.

Dre, the other asshole Ghost had tasked to accompany them, had disappeared as soon as they had gotten out of the goddamn car. Deran was happy to see the back of him, there was something about the guy that put him on edge. He thought it might be the name, Dre. Months prior, maybe even a year ago now, he had listened to Adrian rant until he was out of breath about his niece Raina’s murder, how it happened, why it happened, who was directly and indirectly responsible, and the name ‘Dre’ had passed his lips more than once.

“Yo, what the fuck you two still doing out here?” Dre asked when he finally returned from wherever it was he disappeared to. “You on a coffee break or something?”

“Hey, this is your game, man,” As much as Deran wanted to help get the kid back, he wasn’t a goddamn corner boy. “I’m not a drug dealer by trade, and this isn’t my turf.”

“You’re fucking useless is what you’re saying,” Dre said dismissively, shifting his focus to the other member of their little trio. “What about you, Alphonse? What fucking excuses do you have for me?’

“No excuses,” Alphonse sipped his drink, not having a single goddamn care in the world. “Just waiting for the competition to clear out.”

“Competition?” Dre glanced across the street, observing customers making buys from a couple guys on the corner. “So you just gonna stand here holding your dick until these assholes get tired and go home?”

“Man, fuck you,” Alphonse spit at the other man. “You do this shit your way, I’ll do it mine.”

“You ain’t built for this shit, bro,” Dre sneered. “Neither of you.”

Dre started off across the street, taking a switchblade from his pocket, keeping it close to his side to conceal it until the last possible moment. He approached the competing dealers, offering one of them a brief nod before shoving the knife into his gut and strolling away as if nothing had happened.

“That’s bold,” Deran had done some shady shit in public, but nothing quite to the extent of stabbing a dude in broad daylight on a busy street. “Guess you guys aren’t worried about the cops.”

“Not in this neighborhood, man.”

* * *

By the time Renn reached what Craig hoped was the end of her confession, his initial anger had passed and he was teetering somewhere between impressed and confused.

“So Adrian came to you after someone named Alicia Jimenez was arrested by the feds in New York,” Craig was a little upset that his brother’s boyfriend had reached out to his girlfriend and gotten her deeper in the drug game, but he would deal with that at a later date. “She was the head of Jimenez cartel or something?”

“She and her brother, Diego, yeah. They pretty much ruled the drug trade in Southern Cali, Oceanside included,” Renn explained, taking a long swig of coffee. “My connect got their product from the Jimenez.”

“So Adrian tried to warn you that your pipeline would be drying up?”

“No. Thing don’t just stop because someone goes to prison,” Renn remarked curtly. “He came to warn me that with Alicia in jail and Diego dead things could become unstable and other organizations would try to take over the territory.”

“Like the Serbians he works for,” The kid knew when to make his move, Craig had to give him props for that. “And he, what, offered you a chance to switch organizations?”

“I would have had to anyway if the Jimenez were successfully pushed out.”

“Together, the two of you decided to capitalize on the instability,” Smart play, he supposed. “And that somehow involved Baz’s old girlfriend, Lucy.”

“She was the shot caller for the Jimenez. While Alicia and Diego were expanding to New York and Europe, Lucy ran the border and California,” Renn continued, offering brief details about the cartel’s hierarchy. “Adrian’s first job for the Serbians was to take over the Los Angeles ports, which happened to be under Jimenez control and Lucy’s purview.”

“I can’t really picture Adrian getting his hands dirty and taking them by force.”

“Didn’t have to. Things were unstable, and we knew the shot caller personally,” Renn smirked deviously. “We made contact with Lucy, set a meeting, and negotiated for control of the ports. She tried to play hardball, but she wasn’t in the position to keep them, especially when her focus was split between the business and family after her brother was kidnapped.”

“When Smurf kidnapped him,” Admittedly, that wasn’t his mom’s finest moment. “Why didn’t Adrian just negotiate with Lucy for Oceanside instead of playing rat with Jason’s crew?”

“He probably would have had Lucy not been executed by then,” Renn noted. “You didn’t know Smurf hired the Trujillos to kill her, did you?”

“No.”

“Rumor is she was shot while taking her son to school, and he saw the whole thing.”

“Jesus.”

“Adrian wanted to get the territory for the Serbians, but he didn’t want Jack or anyone else to die for it, so…” Renn shrugged her shoulders. “He found another way.”

“You weren’t involved in that?” That was a small comfort. “You didn’t help him?”

“It was too risky and I was pregnant,” Renn gazed at the basket of freshly cleaned baby clothes sitting on the couch. “We both agreed it was better if I sat that one out.”

“So what was all that the other day about no one wanting to buy from you because you’re with me or some shit?”

“That was the truth,” Renn huffed, irritation painting her features. “I don’t want to move up the ranks in this business, Craig. I like where I’m at, where I still have the freedom to walk away if I want to.”

“That makes sense, I guess,” Another one of those small comforts. “So, you and Adrian aren’t really working together anymore?”

“I help him out on an as-needed basis.”

“Right,” Craig was just going to have to talk to Deran about bringing Renn and Adrian’s budding partnership to a close. “And if I asked you to stop this shit with Adrian…?”

“I’d tell you to go to hell.”

“Right.”

“I’ve never asked you to quit doing what you do.”

“That’s different.”

“It always is with you Codys, isn’t it?”

* * *

Tommy could be a loud guy at times, but he appreciated the silence, which worked out ‘cause that’s all Andrew “Potsy” Cody had given him. They had been trapped in the car together for the better part of a day, making deliveries and a special pickup, and a not a single word was spoken between them the entire time. God, it was beautiful. Of course, that all changed once they returned to the warehouse and met up with the others.

“Where’s Deran?” Pope questioned in a tone full of accusation. “What did your friend do to him?”

“Nothing that I know of,” It’s not like Tommy had taken the time to ask after the kid when he and Ghost were exchanging texts earlier in the day. “He’s with Ghost and Tasha at Truth. He’ll be back here before we make the drop.”

“Right.”

“You wouldn’t have to worry about Deran if you two went home like I told you to,” Adrian muttered as he set a dufflebag full of cash to be counted on the table. “Did they get their half, Tommy?”

“Not sure yet,” He was still waiting, just like Ghost and Tasha were waiting on them. “You guys did good today. Nice job.”

“Hope y’all done exploiting motherfuckers, man,” Spanky grumbled, adding his bounty to the growing pile. “’Cause my black ass is off the clock.”

“Look, we done,” They had all done there parts and come through in a clutch. “I appreciate y’all going in extra hard on this.”

“It wasn’t nothing, boss,” Grim offered him an easy smile. “Easy money. Right, fellas?”

“Right,” Adrian concurred. “Easy money.”

“I’ll get all this shit sorted out,” ‘Keisha said, gathering the bags of money off the table. “Make sure it’s all in order.”

“Thank you, baby,” Tommy grin slipped as she tried to lift their score and carry it herself. “What the fuck everyone just standing around for? You gonna watch a female struggle? Where are your fucking manners?”

“Sorry,” Grim hastily apologized and corrected his behavior, rushing to take a load off ‘Keisha’s hands, Spanky following more reluctantly.

“Hey, Tommy,” Adrian nudged him. “I think I should go with you and Jamie tonight.”

“To the drop with Vincent?” Tommy’s baby brother must have been out of his damn mind. “No.”

“I can help. I can be your backup,” Adrian insisted. “You need me.”

“We don’t need backup for that,” It was a simple trade, the ransom for the kid. “If we did, I wouldn’t take you.”

“Why not?”

“You’re his little brother,” Pope interjected. “He’s not going to put you in danger.”

“Don’t help him,” Adrian snapped at the other man. “He doesn’t get to accept help from someone who willfully puts his own brothers in danger every day.”

“It’s not every day,” Pope claimed with a pout. “And that was Smurf—“

“Oh, so you plan to stop pulling jobs now that she’s gone?”

“Well—“

“_**Well.**_ Bitch about this another time,” Tommy did not want to listen to it. “Adrian, I know you want to help, but you already have. You’ve done your part, okay?”

“No, not okay. Tariq’s my family too,” Adrian reminded him, a defiant scowl taking up residence on his face. “When things go bad at the drop—“

“If,” Tommy wasn’t going into the handoff expecting shit to hit the fan. “Not when. _**If**_.”

“With you and Ghost involved, there’s always a better chance things will go wrong rather than right,” Adrian said gravely. “If it goes bad, I can get Tariq out and somewhere safe while you and Jamie deal with the Italians.”

“I can get Grim to do that.”

“Tariq’s not going to trust Grim, he barely knows him.”

“That’s a good point.”

“It’s me or Tasha or Jess.”

“I guess it’s you.”

* * *

As it turned out, pushing pills on a street corner made for a very long and boring day, and Deran was fucking ecstatic when it was over and he could trade the cold street for Ghost’s cushy office at Truth.

“Tommy’s got the bags from all his people,” Ghost announced, reading from a text message on his phone. “Counting it now.”

“Well, do you think all this money,” Tasha gestured to the stacks of cash on the coffee table and bar. “Plus his is gonna be enough?”

“Well, we got our half, right?” Ghost said as he loaded the money into a large black bag. “If Tommy’s got his, that should be more than enough.”

“You and Tommy aren’t going to meet the Italians alone, are you?” Deran asked, hoping, for Adrian and the kid’s sake, that they weren’t as insane as he thought they were. “What’s to stop him from taking the money and killing you, Tommy, and your son?”

“I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you have,” Ghost retorted arrogantly. “I always expect a double-cross. I’ve got a backup plan.”

“Fuck your plan,” All the planning in the world was useless when there was a gun pointed in your face or at someone you loved. “Do you have actual backup? ‘Cause that’s what’s going to keep you alive, not some bullshit plan you came up with in a couple hours.”

“You want to tag a long,” Ghost didn’t pose it as a question, more of a plain as day fact. “That’s where this is going, right? I’ll tell you right fucking now, I’m not letting you or your brother anywhere near this money.”

“I don’t give a shit about your money.”

“You’re a thief.”

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t rip off ransom money,” Sure, he and his family had ripped off a church and an army base, but that didn’t mean they were completely immoral. “This is about your kid, right? About getting him back alive?”

“It is for us. For you, it’s about Adrian,” Tasha deduced. “You think pretending to care about his nephew and his brothers will get you back on his good side.”

“I’ve got my own Italians that will be waiting nearby to aide me and Tommy if Vincent tries anything,” Ghost clarified what he’d meant by backup. “But if you think coming along will earn you brownie points with A, then fine, you can come, but I don’t think it’s going to work out the way you think it will.”

“I guess we’ll see.”

* * *

To say the ride to Vincent’s was tense would be an understatement. Three people in the SUV and each one of them was in a shitty mood for reasons that had little to do with Tariq or the trouble he was in. Ghost was upset that Tommy had allowed Adrian to join them in what could turn into a very dangerous situation, and Tommy and Adrian were pissed that Ghost let Deran and Pope follow in a car behind them as some half-assed idea of backup.

“So,” Ghost broke the silence of the car. “Where’d you cop the truck, Tommy?”

“It’s Grim’s,” Tommy would have loved to drive his own car, but what was left of it was in pieces at a junkyard in Queens. “Some asshole totaled my car.”

“Tommy, what are we doing? Don’t you think we should fucking talk about it, huh?” Ghost pressed him to address the elephant in the car. “What happens between me and you once we get Tariq back?”

“No need to talk about it,” Tommy decided, keeping his eyes on the road ahead of him. “I know the answer.”

“You two call a draw and drop this bullshit feud,” Adrian chimed in from the backseat. “And we all go back to being a family.”

“You’re not that naïve,” Tommy mumbled to his little brother. “You know things can’t go back to the way they were.”

“Enlighten me, Tommy.” Ghost prompted him. “How’s it going to be?”

“Don’t play innocent, Ghost,” Tommy didn’t have the patience for games tonight, it’d already been a long day. “Are you packing?”

“Yeah, I’m packing,” Ghost confirmed. “You?”

“Of course I’m packing,” He was always packing. “I guess there’s your answer.”

“And there’s the answer.”

“I’ve never known either of you to leave the house unarmed,” Adrian pointed out. “You’re only packing because it’s a day that ends in _**y**_. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Will you be quiet back there?” Tommy would reach back and pop his brother upside the head if he had the energy. “Look, Ghost, we’ll deliver the money to Vincent, pick up the kid, and then… We’ll do what we do.”

A squeal of tires on the road beside them brought any talk of what happens after to a sudden halt. A pair of dark colored SUVs sped out in front of them, coming to an abrupt stop at the intersection, while two others pulled up behind the Codys car.

“What the…” Tommy slammed on the brakes to avoid a collision as Jason and his men poured out of the SUVs, all armed to the teeth.

“_Let’s go!”_ Jason yelled, gesticulating with his gun. _“Out of the car!”_

“Fuck.” Tommy reached for his gun. “What the fucking fuck…”

“No, Tommy.” Ghost protested the move. “Don’t even think about it. There’s too many of them, man.”

“We could take ‘em,” Sure they were outgunned, but it was nothing the three of them couldn’t handle together. “A, you strapped?”

“Not since that morning with 2-Bit,” Adrian remarked, unbuckling his seatbelt. “Any other time, I might go along with your suicide plan, but not when Tariq’s waiting on us.”

“Come on, man, I got something to live for,” Ghost tried to reason with Tommy’s bloodlust. “You wanna die, do it on your own terms, leave me and little brother out of it.”

“I shoulda known you wouldn’t have my back,” Tommy couldn’t very well take on a dozen men by himself, couldn’t even try when his brother was with him.

“_I don’t have all fucking night!”_ Jason shouted, growing increasingly impatient. _“Get out of the car!”_

Refusing to comply with the order was out of the question when Jason’s men yanked open the truck doors and forced them out of the vehicle. Tommy and Ghost were disarmed with little fanfare and, along with Adrian, were brought to stand before Jason with brutes at their back and guns jammed against their necks.

“Keep the other two in the car,” Jason waved a hand toward the Codys in the follow car. “They’re not a part of this. I don’t need them.”

“Yo, Jason,” Tommy watched as Drago took the two bags of Tariq’s ransom money out of the truck. “No. Hey. You ain’t gonna take that, right? Come on, please.”

“Jason,” Ghost carefully kept his voice calm, his mask of business-like demeanor firmly in place. “Jason, what the fuck is this?”

“I should be asking you that, but I already know the answer,” Jason snapped, ripping one of the bags out of Drago’s hands to check the contents. “Can’t fucking believe you two are working together again.”

“We ain’t working together,” Tommy claimed indignantly, but it sounded like a lie even to his own ears. “Not technically.”

“Well, _**technically**_, you still owe me for my guys’ protection, even though you’ve been ditching them lately,” Jason countered, shifting his attention to Ghost. “And you, technically you still owe me for this month’s payment for killing Stanomir. So you know what? This is what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna fix all that.”

“You’ve been paying him for the guy you killed when you fucked up my car?”

“You’ve been paying him for protection from me?” Ghost shot back, glancing around Tommy to their little brother. “What about you, A? What are you paying him for?”

“Nothing,” Adrian puffed out his chest. “I’m not as much trouble as the two of you.”

“That’s rapidly becoming debatable,” Jason asserted and Adrian deflated almost instantly. “I’m disappointed to see you here, Adrian.”

“He’s our brother, he goes where we go,” Ghost tried to pass Adrian’s presence off as a usual occurrence, nothing out of the ordinary at all. “Listen, Jason, we need that money, man. I swear to God.”

“Yeah, I bet you do, which is why I’m only going to take half,” Jason kept one bag for himself and dropped the other at their feet. “That should bring both your accounts current.”

“No. Wait. Jason,” Adrian stepped forward, only to be jerked back roughly by the asshole holding him. “You don’t understand. That money is life or death.”

“I’m sure it is.”

“Take me instead of the money,” Adrian offered himself up in trade. “You can keep me as collateral or a hostage, whatever, until Tommy and Jamie make good on their accounts.”

“What? No,” Tommy was not about to put one kid in danger to save another. “He don’t know what he’s saying, Jason. Don’t listen to him. He hasn’t been sleeping. He’s not thinking clearly.”

“I’m perfectly clear. That money needs to get where it’s going,” Adrian argued. “Jason, leave the money with them, take me in its place. You can keep me for as long as it takes and do whatever you want to me.”

“You’re not my type,” Jason deadpanned. “No offense.”

“I didn’t mean anything like _**anything**_,” Adrian didn’t miss a beat or allow Jason’s words to throw him off. “And you’re not my type either. I lean more toward miserable mama’s boys with attachment issues and short tempers – totally unintentionally, but it happens. You, you’re more, I don’t know, you’re strangely upbeat for a drug kingpin.”

“I do enjoy life.”

“Good for you.”

“Um,” Tommy cleared his throat awkwardly. “Does anyone else feel like this conversation has really gotten away from us?”

“Yes.” Drago piped up.

“Yeah,” Ghost agreed. “If we can get back on topic…”

“Right. Yeah,” Adrian nodded. “Me for the money, Jason. What do you say?”

“I will accept your terms, but I want what’s owed to me within twenty-four hours,” Jason put a well-used clock on the exchange. “After twenty-four hours, my hospitality will cease to exist, and I can guarantee you will not be returned to your brothers in the same condition I’m taking you in.”

“You don’t have to take him at all,” Especially when Tommy had no means to get him back in such a short timetable, having blown through his entire inventory to raise the money for Tariq’s ransom. “We can work something out.”

“Adrian and I have already worked it out. Pay attention,” Jason glowered. “He’s coming with me. You can take your money. If you’d like your baby brother’s limbs to remain intact, you will bring me my money in a timely fashion.”

“No, man,” Tommy couldn’t just let Jason drive off with his brother, it went against every goddamn thing he had learned in his last thirty-two goddamn years as a big brother. “Y-You don’t gotta do it this way. H-He’s just a dumb kid. He doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing.”

“On the contrary, I think he’s the only one here who knows exactly what he’s doing,” Jason commented approvingly.

“No, he doesn’t,” Ghost pinched the bridge of his nose. “He’s just a first rate bullshitter.”

“Nevertheless,” Jason motioned for his man to bring Adrian to the car. “He’s coming with me.”

* * *

If Pope hadn’t already been pissed off about having to deliver boxes of drugs with Tommy all day, then getting dragged to the money drop did the trick. His brother stewing in the passenger seat next to him certainly didn’t improve his mood.

“Jason’s not going to kill Adrian,” Unlike the rest of their crew, Pope hadn’t been the least bit worried when Adrian was ushered into an SUV at gunpoint. “He wouldn’t have wasted money paying off the feds if Adrian was someone he was willing to just throw away.”

“That’s not as reassuring as you think it is,” Deran groused, picking at a loose thread on his jeans. “It’s not Jason killing him that worries me, it’s Tommy and Ghost keeping it together long enough to get him back before Jason starts torturing him or something.”

“They managed to gather $2million in a day to get their kid back,” That was no small feat by any means. “I don’t think they’re going to trip themselves up when it’s their brother on the line.”

“What was Craig texting you about a few minutes ago?” Deran changed the subject. “Did Pearce come at him again?”

“No, but Craig did attempt to handle the Dave situation on his own,” That hadn’t gone as expected, from what he had told Pope. “He didn’t get very far. Renn stopped him.”

“Renn?”

“She and Adrian partnered up to do a job for the Serbians,” Their little team-up wasn’t as surprising as it probably should have been. “A job that also included Lucy.”

“If it wasn’t for the Serbian connection, I’d think the job would’ve been to take out Smurf,” Deran joked, chuckling mirthlessly. “Not that Renn would have any reason to; Smurf didn’t hate her the way she did Adrian, Lucy, and Cath.”

“She didn’t see Renn as a threat,” Renn hadn’t spent as much quality time with Smurf as the others had. “Renn and Craig were just two people having fun until they had the baby.”

“Yeah, I guess Smurf had no reason to worry about her.”

“Cath, Lucy, Adrian, they were different. Smurf could see what was there, how deep it ran, she thought it meant they could sway us, pull us away from her, the family, and she was never going to let that happen,” How it all turned out would’ve been funny if it wasn’t so tragic. “Smurf was wrong about you and Adrian, though. She was never going to lose you to him. You were always going to choose her.”

“I chose the family.”

“You chose the life she forced on us, the life you hated. You chose Smurf.” Pope murmured, glancing out the windshield, noticing new players had driven onto the field. “I think it’s going down.”

The meet with the Italians was happening at a vacant lot near the waterfront. Their sorry excuse for a team had arrived first, giving Deran and Pope a chance to pull their car into the shadows, out of sight from prying eyes. Tommy and Ghost, on the other hand, parked smack-dab in the middle of the lot so they couldn’t be missed or overlooked when Vincent and his men showed.

“It’s only Grim,” Deran muttered, watching a man exit a pick-up truck to join Tommy and Ghost beside their vehicles. “Nothing to get excited about.”

“Maybe this one will do it for you,” Pope pointed to another SUV entering the lot. “That’s gotta be them.”

“I’ve never met this Vincent guy, but yeah, they look like Italians to me,” Deran agreed, eyes darting around the car park, trying to keep track of everyone. “This is it.”

“Yeah,” Pope figured that much out for himself as a young black kid was forced out of the SUV. “That Adrian’s nephew?”

“Gotta be,” Deran tracked Tommy as he moved to Grim’s truck and pulled a man out of the backseat. “When did our side get a hostage?”

“Tommy and I picked that guy up earlier,” That trip was the only reprieve Pope had from being cooped up in a car all day. “He’s Vincent’s number two or something. Tommy thought he’d make a good insurance policy.”

It was good thinking to, because Tommy, Ghost, and Grim were seriously outnumbered, even with Pope and Deran as reinforcements. Vincent’s men surrounded them on all sides, but didn’t interfere when Ghost handed over the money or Vincent’s number two was cut loose. The tide shifted only once Tariq was safely in his father’s arms.

“_You didn’t think I would let the kid live, did you?”_ Vincent tutted as he and his men pulled their guns. _“I’ve killed people I actually care about for a lot less than what he did to me.”_

“This is us,” Deran reached for the door handle, only to be stopped by Pope slamming a hand across his chest. “What are you doing? This is what we came here for.”

“This is what you’re here for. I came to make sure you didn’t get yourself killed,” Pope was not going to lose another brother to a war that wasn’t theirs to fight. “We have our own family that needs us at home. We’re not going to die for a bunch of strangers who’ve already tried to kill you once.”

“Pope, if it was us here, and Lena or Nick were the ones missing, Adrian would help,” Deran acknowledged. “I mean, I wouldn’t ask him to, but he would if I did.”

“You’re not getting out of the car, Deran,” Pope would handcuff his brother to the steering wheel if that’s what it took. “This isn’t our fight. We shouldn’t even be here.”

“But we are, so let’s….” Deran trailed off as an unfamiliar man appeared at the edge of the parking lot. “Wait. Maybe this is the backup Ghost told me about earlier.”

“_Vincent, I think my son is going to be just fine,”_ Ghost smirked, nodding to the burly man crossing the lot to join the group. _“You know Benny, right?”_

“_Benny,”_ Vincent addressed the newcomer. _“And how does this concern you?”_

“_My cousin Joe was murdered last night. Tariq saved his daughter, my niece_,” Benny offered the teenager a grateful smile. _“He brought her to me, safe and sound. Not even a fucking scratch.”_

“_He knows,”_ Tariq sneered. _“He snatched me off the street outside your house.”_

“_If you’re looking to hurt this kid, Vincent, it very much concerns me. I owe him a debt_,” Benny drawled through a thick New Yorker accent. _“Now, it’s my understanding that you’ve been well compensated for whatever trouble he caused you. Unless you want to go to war with my people, and I suspect you very much don’t want to do that, quit while you’re fucking ahead.”_

Vincent stared Benny down, sizing him up while his men whispered to one another behind his back. In the end, probably realizing he was now the one overpowered, Vincent relented. He holstered his gun, spit at the ground at Benny’s feet, and retreated to his vehicle.

“Huh,” Deran clucked, face scrunched up in confusion. “That was anti-climactic.”

“Did you want someone to start shooting?”

“No, I just thought someone would.”

* * *

So many threats had been lobbed Adrian’s way over the last several months that it was hard to take them seriously anymore. Realistically, Jason was far more dangerous than the cops and the Codys combined, Adrian should have had a healthy fear of him and what he could do, yet he felt nothing. Honestly, the few hours he’d spent as Jason’s hostage so far were exactly what he expected them to be, a nice break from all the drama— and it was at the exact moment he came to that realization that Jason decided to ruin it by opening his big mouth.

“So,” Jason set a glass of something amber in front of him. “Tommy and Ghost are working together again.”

“Temporarily,” He wasn’t sure why that was Jason’s business, though. “Handling a family problem, that’s all.”

“You’re disappointed,” Jason noted, leaning back in his office chair. “You want them to continue working together?”

“I want them to stop trying to kill each other,” He knew his brothers well enough to know that was too much to ask of them. “But that’s family, I guess.”

“You have a strange outlook on family,” Jason pursed his lips, skimming his fingers over the hard oak of his desk. “All these problems with Tommy, it always goes back to family. Perhaps Milan was right; Tommy is too connected to others to make this business his life.”

“Isn’t everybody?” Making your career your entire life was a sad way to pass the time.

“You’re not,” Jason remarked, a smug smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “That’s part of why I keep you around. You could make this business everything once you realize you have nothing.”

“That’s not true,” Adrian was no different from his brother when it came to the people in their lives. “I have connections.”

“You do, but you’re not as connected to them as your brother is to his. You stay close to your family and your friends long enough for them to get where they need to be and then you distance yourself because they don’t need you anymore,” Jason spoke like he was some sort of authority on the subject, as if he had inside knowledge about the inner workings of Adrian’s life. “If you don’t, they’ll get bored with you, and you’ll be nothing but a forethought to them, a footnote in their lives.”

“You got all that after a couple months in my life?” Adrian scoffed, shaking his head. “Bullshit.”

“Your boyfriend proved it, didn’t he? He cast you out so easily after he had everything he wanted. Your brother and sister, you might have been close to them as you could be once upon a time, but it’s not like that anymore,” Jason carried on dissecting his way though Adrian’s life. “Now, Jess has her daughter and Tommy has taken on LaKeisha and her son. You don’t see much of them anymore, do you? You don’t speak to them often. I mean, you were juggling me, the feds, your partnership with Ms. Randall, and negotiations with the Jimenez for months and not one person in your life picked up on anything being wrong until you reached the end of the line.”

“I hate that you had someone following me long enough to know that.”

“You don’t share with them or tell them things because it’s not relevant to them. You know you’re not relevant to them, so you don’t get too comfortable around them,” Jason continued, undeterred by Adrian’s commentary. “That’s why you have the ability to make it much further in this business than your brothers ever will. You have nothing and no one anchored to you. You have nothing to lose. You are free in a way Tommy and Ghost could never be.”

* * *

There was a certain kind of trepidation in returning to the loft without a member of their warped crew. The women awaiting them were headstrong and overprotective with a penchant for violence that could rival Tommy’s when provoked. Tommy likened facing the ladies to facing a firing squad.

“Tariq!” Tasha was on her feet and at her son’s side in an instant, cupping his face in her hands. “Baby, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Mom,” The teenager shrugged out of his mother’s hold. “Dad and Uncle Tommy got to me before Vincent could do anything.”

“Just Dad and Uncle Tommy?” Jess stood from the couch, taking a headcount of the stragglers by the front door. “Where’s Adrian?”

“I didn’t see Uncle Adrian,” Tariq furrowed his brows. “He wasn’t there.”

“He better have fucking been there, he went with your dad and Tommy,” Tasha stepped around her son to confront the men. “One of you better speak the fuck up and tell us where he is.”

“Talk to them,” Deran, the rat bitch, pointed the finger directly at Tommy and Ghost. “They let that Serbian asshole take him.”

“Jason tried to rob us,” Tommy confessed, hunching his shoulders. “He was going to take half the money we needed to get ‘Riq back, but Adrian convinced him to take him instead. We’ll get Adrian back once we give Jason the money we owe him.”

“Oh god, Tommy,” ‘Keisha pinned herself to his side. “Are you okay?”

“We’re fine,” Ghost answered for him. “We’re all fine.”

“Not for long you’re not if we don’t get Adrian back,” Jess growled, Mama Bear mode activated. “Where are we going to get that kind of money?”

“Normally, I’d say we get more product,” It was the only way Tommy knew how to make money. “Obviously, we can’t go back to Jason when he’s the one we owe.”

“Tasha,” Jess elbowed their sister gently. “You can do it. You can get it.”

“Yeah, Tasha,” LaKeisha crossed her arms over her chest. “You gonna say something?”

“I can get the drugs,” Tasha admitted to the surprise of everyone but the other women. “I got a connect. H-He’s not exactly big time—“

“You got a connect?” Ghost moved into his ex-wife’s space. “You’ve been moving weight without telling anybody? Are you fucking kidding me right now?”

“Ghost, come on,” Tommy pushed at the other man’s shoulder. “We don’t got time for this. Focus!”

“I told you they couldn’t keep it together,” Deran muttered scornfully. “Should’ve gone to get Adrian ourselves.”

“Look, I could get the product we need or we could get the money a different way,” Tasha rested her hands on her hips. “We’ve already got two thieves, the chia pet and the Kurt Cobain wannabe.”

“Kurt Cobain?” Deran bristled. “I don’t even like Nirvana.”

“We’re already fucked it we’re relying on these motherfuckers,” Tommy didn’t trust them to take out the trash let alone get his brother back. “No. We’ll handle this.”

“Adrian said they were at our disposal, we might as well put them to good use,” Tasha proposed. “They could hit Truth.”

“Hit Truth?” Jess raised her brows. “Jamie’s club?”

“Tasha, I can’t rob my own club,” Ghost scowled. “Think about it—“

“Not the club,” Tasha shook her head. “Rashad Tate’s having that big fundraiser for his campaign there tomorrow night, isn’t he? The richest people in New York City will be there. Send in the Codys and some of our own people to empty their pockets.”

“You want us to rob a club with less than a day to do prep work?” Pope frowned. “We usually need more time to prepare if we want to avoid mistakes.”

“That’s when you’re ripping off some stranger,” Jess tutted. “This time you’ve got an inside man and unrestricted access to the venue ahead of time.”

“Won’t people know that Ghost’s behind it if he’s not there?”

“I will be there, Tasha too, as guests,” Ghost replied, finally catching on to what Tasha had in mind. “All right. I’ll get Alphonse to help out. Tommy, you round up 2-Bit and Spanky –“

“It’s gonna be a little hard to find 2-Bit,” On account of baby brother having blown a hole through his face, but not everyone in present company needed to know that. “And Grim big ass would stand out like a motherfucker. Spanky, Alphonse, and the Codys will have to do.”

“The four of them will rob me and Tasha, along with everybody else at the club for the fundraiser,” Ghost said, flashing his ex-wife a proud grin. “It’s a smart plan, Tasha.”

“Yeah, and the whole crowd gonna be laced up with jewelry,” Tommy rubbed his hands together in anticipation. “We can double up, cash and bling.”

“And Proctor’s cousin Benny, he and his crew can fence all that shit,” Ghost mentioned a solution to the one snag they would have hit otherwise. “So, this is how we get little brother back.”

“Perfect.”

“Excuse me,” ‘Keisha interrupted them patting themselves on the back. “What if something happens at Truth? What happens to Adrian then? Any of you thought of that?”

“Tommy, Grim, and me won’t be there,” Jess gestured between them. “We’ll get him back the same way we got ‘Riq, except with Tasha’s connect instead of Jason.”

“What do you know about Tasha’s connect?”

“She met him today—in passing, I didn’t introduce them,” Tasha was quick to cover her own ass. “I’ll call him, let him know my sister might need a big order on short notice. It’s gotta be you though, Jess. I’m not letting Tommy or Ghost anywhere near him.”

“Okay—“

“No. Fuck that, Tasha,” Ghost put his foot down. “Take me to this motherfucker so I can see that he’s legit.”

“Hell no.”

“I will be the one to meet with him if things go south at Truth,” Jess maneuvered herself between the volatile former couple. “I’ll meet with him and pick up the product. Me. No one else.”

“You know, if someone would have told me in high school that_** both**_ Dolan kids would end up slinging dope, I would have laughed in their face,” Deran snorted derisively. “It tracks, though. Cokehead mom, drug dealing kids.”

“You’re not really in the position to be casting stones,” Jess narrowed her eyes at the youngest of the Cody brothers. “What with Junkie Julia and Kilo-A-Day Craig rounding out your family tree. Deadbeat Daddy falls in line there somewhere too, doesn’t he?”

“Can we all act like adults for, I don’t know, five fucking minutes?” Tommy grumbled, the constant squabbling getting on his last nerve.

“Probably not,” Pope sighed. “But we could give it a try.”

“Good,” Tommy wasn’t optimistic about their success, but he’d appreciate the effort. “Let’s do that until we get Adrian back.”

* * *

Adrian didn’t mind being a hostage. It was a little boring to sit and do absolutely nothing for hours on end, but it was preferable to torture or, you know, death. His ordeal actually gave him a lot of time to think without the interference or opinions of his family and friends clouding his judgment.

He and Jason hadn’t really spoken since their conversation about Adrian’s connections or lack thereof, but Jason kept him locked in his office at all times. He cooled his heels in a surprisingly comfortable armchair long after Jason had gone home for the night and remained there for hours after he had come back with coffee and breakfast in the morning. He didn’t notice much about what was going on outside the glass walls in the rest of the building, it wasn’t his business and he was too lost in his own thoughts to care. He didn’t fully zone back into the office until he untangled the mess in his head and found some clarity.

“You don’t need me to stay here,” Adrian said as he came back to himself. “As long as Tommy and Jamie think you have me, you’ll get your money.”

“If Tommy comes to collect you and you’re not here, he’ll try to kill me,” Jason accurately predicted. “And my men will kill him. Is that really what you want?”

“You can call or text me when he gets here, so I can call him to let him know I’m safe and sound,” There were plenty of ways Adrian could be used against his brother without being physically present. “You don’t need me to be here. I’m just getting in the way.”

“Until you opened your mouth, I would’ve have likened you to a statue, not something I would call a bother,” Jason hummed. “What’s so important that you have to go? Or is it my company you don’t enjoy?”

“Well, your little psychotherapy session last night did leave a lot to be desired,” Adrian wouldn’t hold it against him, though. “It’s dangerous for me to be here. Dangerous for you.”

“Because of your brothers?”

“No, not them,” Yes, Tommy and Ghost wanted him dead for their own reasons, but as far as Adrian knew that idea was on the backburner for the time being. “I’m having some legal troubles at the moment.”

“I handled your fed problem.”

“It’s the California State Police,” Detective Pearce was rearing his ugly head again. “It’s a past mistake. It has nothing to do with you or your organization.”

“You’re not going to ask me for help,” Jason presumed with a pleased smile. “Because you think I’ll want something from you in return.”

“You will,” Adrian didn’t want to write a check he knew could very well bounce. “Money’s not going to make this one go away.”

“Do you have a plan?”

“More or less,” It was a plan built on the foundation of the shaky idea that he could gain control of the situation. “But I can’t put it in motion from here, and it’s not safe for us to be meeting so long as the cops are looking for me.”

“I’m not worried,” Jason brushed off his concern. “Where do you need to be to combat your legal woes?”

“Oceanside would be best,” He would have to return there once the cops filed formal charges anyway. “My mom’s house will work for now, it’s where all my legal paperwork is—“

“Don’t lie to me.”

“Fine,” So maybe he didn’t have to leave to put things in motion, maybe he just wanted to be somewhere else. “I just need my phone and some privacy. I don’t think I can get that here.”

“There are ears everywhere,” Jason nodded, relaxing into his chair. “I have a strong feeling this plan of yours is going to lead to the end of our acquaintanceship.”

“How so?”

“Oh, you’re the self-sacrifice type, you’ve proved that twice now, by my count,” Jason scrutinized him. “So you’re either going to be in jail or gone by the time this is over.”

“I don’t know what role I’ll be playing until I speak to my public defender,” There wasn’t much he could do without the whole picture; to move forward, he had to have what Pearce had. “You gonna let me go or not?”

“What’s to stop you from calling Tommy as soon as I let you out of here?” Jason inquired curiously. “You call him, I won’t get my money.”

“I know you’ll sic your men on him and Jamie if I do,” Adrian wasn’t going to put his brothers at risk. “I won’t call until you give me the go-ahead.”

“Are you sure you have to get all of this started right this second?”

“The sooner I get it done the better, right? I mean, unless you want the cops to roll up on us when we’re having one of these chats,” Adrian really did not need Pearce to get wind of his work with the Serbians. “It’s best for both of us.”

“Ghost was right about you. You are an excellent bullshitter.”

“I wouldn’t have graduated high school if I wasn’t,” He pretty much bullshitted his way through all four years, it was actually kind of a shock when he did graduate, more so when he was accepted into college. “Doesn’t mean I’m not right.”

* * *

The plan to hit Truth was simple and not unlike the yacht heist they’d pulled a few years prior, big party, lots of wealthy people, masks, guns, outside help, and an inside man. Unfortunately, their inside man this time around wasn’t Craig playing waiter, but Ghost acting as a guest, and their outside help, Spanky and Alphonse, were just as untrustworthy and unpredictable as Marco had been. The lack of trust within the crew proved to be their first problem, Alphonse being unable to keep his shit together was the second, and Ghost’s ulterior motive for pulling the heist turned out to be icing on the fucking cake.

Things had gone as smoothly as they could have, at the start. They waited in the back where the inventory was stored until the party was in full swing, letting everyone have a glass or two of champagne to relax and get comfortable before they made their move. The guests were too busy rubbing elbows and making donations to the man of the hour’s campaign to notice anything was amiss until it was too late.

Alphonse was the most inexperienced of their makeshift crew, but Ghost had made him the point-man nonetheless. He stalked through the main entrance, cocking a shotgun and ordering everyone to put their hands in the air, yelling loud enough for someone on the sidewalk outside the club to hear him. The crowd responded as he expected them to, scattering in his wake, screeching and screaming out of surprise and fear.

Spanky at least seemed to know what he was doing when he burst in through the serve entrance with a handgun lodged in his grip. He was smart enough to keep what was happening in the club in the club by not raising his voice any louder than he had to. He separated the men and the woman to opposite sides of the dance floor and instructed them to hand over their money and jewels.

Despite being the seasoned thieves of the group, Deran and Pope had been regulated to the bar area on the level above the dance floor. They controlled the guests with practiced ease, and collected anything of value that could be of use. If it had been just the two of them, they would have been in and out quick, no fuss, no fucking muss. However, their lack of trust in the other members of their crew slowed their pace when they were forced to keep an eye on Spanky and Alphonse from the overhead balcony at all times.

There were five words spoken from a man downstairs whose face was plastered all over the room on posters, pamphlets, and projector screens. Five words from Councilman Rashad Tate that turned what should have been a simple job into anything but.

“_I know you from somewhere.”_

Maybe if Tate had just kept his mouth shut, the air in the room wouldn’t have become stifling and Alphonse wouldn’t have fired his gun at the ceiling, but he did, so here they were. Now, no matter how according to plan things could still go, they had a witness to contend with, someone who could possibly ID one of them and had to be dealt with before things at the club came to a close. Deran couldn’t help but wonder if Ghost had known about any previous encounters between Tate and Alphonse when he’d sent Alphonse to the fundraiser with a loaded gun and a flimsy mask.

For his part, Spanky didn’t seem as spooked by Tate’s exclamation as Deran and Pope were. He went about his business, snatching wallets, purses, and jewelry off any poor bastard who had come out to support Tate’s campaign for governor-- and that included Ghost and Tasha.

“_That’s right, all in this fucking bag,”_ Spanky shook the sack in Ghost’s face. _“Put the motherfucking watch in too.”_

“_Come on, man, I-I’ll give you the wallet,”_ Ghost obediently dropped his wallet into the sack. _“The watch stays with me.”_

“_Give me the goddamn watch!”_

“_James, please, just give it to him,”_ Tasha pleaded with her ex-husband from across the club. _“Just let him have it.”_

“_You gonna listen to that bitch?”_ Spanky chortled, and Deran was thankful Jess and Adrian weren’t there, ‘cause they’d slug the asshole for talking about their sister in that kind of language; Tasha would probably slug him herself if she wasn’t in on it. _“Or you trying to be a goddamn hero?”_

“_Fine,”_ Ghost gave up the watch, dumping it into the bag alongside his wallet. _“Take it.”_

The tension didn’t leave the atmosphere, but they pushed on. They gathered everything they could from the guests and wait staff, and that was the end of it, or it should have been if Alphonse’s attention hadn’t been grabbed by a female guest rather than his exit strategy. Spanky didn’t let himself get sidetracked, he secured his goods and took off out the same door he’d come in through. Deran and Pope hesitated, caught between wrangling their out-of-control team member and getting the money and jewelry where it needed to go—it wasn’t a hard choice to make.

“We need to go,” Pope hissed in his ear. “Something else is going on here.”

“Gee, you think?” Didn’t have to be a fucking genius to figure that one out.

Alphonse was so focused on harassing the woman who had caught his eye that he couldn’t be bothered to notice what was going on behind his back, he couldn’t hear Ghost and Tate whispering to each other or see Ghost slip Tate a gun.

“Ghost’s working some other angle here.” Deran doubted they were the only ones left in the dark about whatever it was Ghost had going. “And it’s got nothing to do with getting A back.”

“_Drop the gun now!”_ Tate’s loud voice reverberated through the nightclub. _“I’m not gonna say it twice,_ _**Alphonse**_.”

Deran moved closer to the balcony and saw Ghost on his ass on the floor, Alphonse standing over him with the shotgun. Tate stood in front of the male guests, gun drawn, and a stance that told of prior police training. Alphonse cocked the shotgun, pivoted on his feet toward Tate, and earned a bullet to his chest for the effort.

“We need to go,” Pope growled, yanking Deran along with him. “Come on.”

Knowing the cops would be on their way soon, Deran and Pope booked it out of there as quickly as they could. They retraced theirs steps behind the bar, dashed through the long corridor past Ghost’s office, out the emergency exit door at the end of the hall, and down the fire escape stairs to the alley below where Spanky was waiting next to the van.

“Yo, it’s about time,” The shorter man groused. “Was about to leave your asses.”

“You’re not gonna ask about your buddy?” Deran shouldered past him to stash his loot in the van. “He’s bleeding out inside, by the way.”

“Man, Alphonse ain’t my buddy,” Spanky sneered. “He’s Ghost’s people.”

“Someone should have told us we were pulling two jobs tonight,” Pope shoved Spanky against the side of the van. “It’s risky enough to pull one job on short notice, but to pull a job within a job, a robbery and an execution—“

“I didn’t know nothing about that, man,” Spanky sagged against Pope’s hold. “I’m with Tommy, bro. Ghost ain’t gonna tell me shit.”

“Hey, Adrian doesn’t find out about this Alphonse thing,” As far as Deran was concerned, that was need to know information and Adrian didn’t need to know. “He’s already messed up about Colby and Two-Face—“

“2-Bit, man,” Spanky snorted. “He wasn’t no Batman villain.”

“He doesn’t need to know someone was killed while we were doing this,” The fact that Alphonse was shot working a side job on their job would be irrelevant to Adrian. “He doesn’t need to feel guilty about whatever bullshit Ghost was playing here.”

"What Ghost did was have someone killed during the commission of our robbery," Pope retorted, glaring at Deran as he questioned his priorities. "We can be held legally responsible, but you're worried about your boyfriend's conscience right now?"

“I mean, when you put it like that...”

“Shut up, Deran.”

* * *

Regardless of what some people might have believed, Tommy wasn’t stupid or dim. He could tell that his baby brother wasn’t being entirely altruistic when he volunteered to go with Jason in exchange for their nephews ransom money. That fact was more or less confirmed when Tommy and Ghost delivered Adrian’s ransom money and he was nothing more than a voice over the phone line, having been released earlier in the evening. Tommy tried not to be too pissed off; it wasn’t like he didn’t understand where his brother was coming from.

Adrian had spent the last week or so being suffocated by people bombarding him with questions about what he had done and why and what the fuck was he thinking? The kid insisted on accompanying Tommy and Ghost to get Tariq because it got him out of the loft and away from interrogative questions and disapproving looks. Then, when Jason had shown up out of nowhere, Adrian jumped at the chance to escape once again, further distancing himself from their loving, caring, mildly judgmental family. Tommy didn’t blame the kid for taking the opening, if he was in a similar situation, he might’ve done the same thing. And it’s not like Tommy could lose it over every little thing his brother did when he had other things to worry about.

“Tommy,” ‘Keisha raced into his arms as soon as he stepped in the loft, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing a kiss to his lips. “You’re okay.”

“Yeah, I’m good, baby. Everyone’s all right,” He kicked the door shut and curled his arms around her, holding her close. “But, uh, we might have another problem.”

“Where’s Adrian?” Jess asked from the bottom of the staircase, her daughter sleeping peacefully with her head on her shoulder. “Deran got a text from him a little while ago and rushed out of here…”

“Adrian’s fine. I talked to him,” He couldn’t give her much more than that, his little brother had been reluctant to offer any specifics about where he was or what he was doing. “Jason doesn’t have him. He’ll stumble in when he’s good and ready.”

“You said there was another problem,” ‘Keisha caressed his cheek. “What is it?”

“I, uh, I think Ghost knows about Proctor,” He hadn’t come out and said he knew Tommy had shot up his penthouse and murdered their lawyer, but there had been a strange look in his eyes when Benny brought up the incident. “In some weird way, I think he might take this almost as hard as the Angela thing.”

“I’m not gonna let him hurt you, Tommy,” LaKeisha promised him. “I will kill him myself if I have to.”

“Yeah, Holly tried that, it didn’t work out well for her,” Jess mentioned casually, shifting her daughter in her arms. “You should keep that in mind.”

“Jess.” Tommy snarled her name like a warning. “Don’t go there.”

“She deserves to know what she could be walking into if she makes that choice so she doesn’t make that choice,” Jess maintained, offering ‘Keisha a sympathetic smile. “She shouldn’t be involved in your beef with Ghost, and neither should Tariq or Tasha. It’s only going to get them hurt.”

“Is that what happened to Holly?” ‘Keisha asked nervously. “She got hurt?”

“Something like that, baby,” Tommy wasn’t ready to share that secret, it was his past and he was allowed to keep that trauma to himself for as long as he saw fit. “We’ll talk about it when things settle down, all right?”

“What about Ghost, Tommy?” ‘Keisha questioned, trading history for a more pressing issue. “What are we going to do about him?”

“’Keisha, this shit between me and Ghost is about me and Ghost,” His sister was right, he had involved too many of their family members as it was. “And there’s only one way it’s going to end. Time out is over.”

* * *

_ **NEW MESSAGE (5)** _

**ADRIAN:** _Meet me at my mom’s house._

**ADRIAN:** _Don’t worry. She’s not here._

**ADRIAN:** _Don’t bring Pope._

**ADRIAN:** _Please._

**ADRIAN:** _Just you._

Deran wasn’t going to get his hopes up about the unexpected invitation. He fluctuated from semi-excited to anxious on his way to the house, landing solely on anxious when he pulled up to the curb and crossed the lawn to meet Adrian on the porch.

“Thank you,” Adrian lifted his tired eyes to meet Deran’s. “Thank you for today and yesterday, what you and your brother did for my nephew and me. You have no idea what it means to me.”

“No big deal,” Deran grunted, shopping short of the steps. “You look pretty good for a hostage.”

“A day with Jason was like a breath of fresh air in the face of Tommy and Ghost’s drama,” Adrian quipped halfheartedly. “It helps that I convinced him to let me go early.”

“Oh yeah?” That would’ve been nice to know before the shit show at Truth. “How’d you do that?”

“Appealed to his sense of rationality,” Adrian muttered, raking a hand through his hair. “Told him it’d be a bad idea for us to be seen together with the cops riding my ass again.”

“Right,” A police presence probably wouldn’t make someone of Jason’s stature quiver, but it would still be annoying as hell and make business all the more difficult. “If that’s what you wanted to talk about, Pope should be here, it’s his problem too.”

“No, it’s not. It can’t be. He can’t get caught up in this,” Adrian decided, lips set in a grim line. “We both know Pope can’t go back to prison, he barely survived his last stint, and it took him months to become some semblance of himself.”

“Pope’s not going anywhere,” Deran sure as hell wasn’t about to let his brother go to jail for something he asked him to do. “No one is going to prison.”

“Pearce isn’t going to drop this, Deran. He finally has something he can take to the DA, evidence, a witness, something that can almost guarantee the conviction of one of the Codys. He’s not going to let that go for anything,” Adrian reasoned, slipping his hands into his pockets. “I know how your family thinks, how you think. Right about now you’re probably thinking the only way we all walk away from this whole is if the witness disappears before the trial, but that’s not going to happen.”

“There’s only one person it could be,” There was no point in pussyfooting around it. “I don’t know if you still care about him or something—“

“No, it’s got nothing to do with that,” Adrian claimed, but didn’t deny retaining residual feelings for the other man. “Dave was innocent when you sent Pope after him two years ago, and he’s innocent now.”

“He’s talking to the cops.”

“Of course he is, some asshole he’d never seen before tried to kill him,” Adrian snapped, glowering at Deran. “He’s not from Oceanside. He doesn’t know who your family is. He’s not in this life. He doesn’t know the rules. He’s just a guy.”

“What do you expect us to do, Adrian?” Deran was open to suggestions. “If he testifies, we’re all fucked.”

“Pope and I are fucked,” Adrian corrected him. “I’m sure Pearce has told Dave that you and Pope are brothers, and he’s connected the dots from there, figured out why he ended up tossed off his own boat and why I told him to forget what Pope looked like, but he and Pearce can’t actually prove that you were involved.”

“What difference does that make?”

“Pope can’t go back to prison,” Adrian repeated. “He doesn’t have to. You can save him, and you can do it without hurting Dave. On the surface, you are the only one with the power to do that.”

“How do you—“ Deran faltered, the realization dawning on him. “You want me to turn myself in, make a deal, immunity for Pope in exchange for my confession? You hate me so much that you want to see me behind bars?”

“That’s not what I’m saying, Deran,” Adrian sighed, scratching his facial hair. “You could confess or you could let Pope go back to prison for something that’s not even really his fault or you could tell them that I put Pope up to it for whatever reason—”

“No,” When and why was that even an option? “That’s not—No. You hear me? No. We’re going to figure this out, but we’re not doing any of that.”

“It’s like we’re back on the pier again, isn’t it? You’ve got a choice to make,” Adrian’s voice went flat, void of emotion. “Pope can’t go back to prison, but to keep him out, someone else has to lose. One of us. You or me. So who are you going to sacrifice to protect him? Me or yourself?”

“I’m not making that choice.”

“You’re right, you’re not,” Adrian agreed, dropping his gaze to the peeling paint of the porch steps. “You’ll delude yourself into thinking there’s another way until you can’t anymore if I let you.”

“If you let me?” That was a foreboding and ominous string of words. “What the hell does that mean?”

“We’ve been here before, Deran, so I have the benefit of knowing who you’ll choose when it finally sinks in that this is the only option there is that doesn’t involve someone dying or us all going on the run,” Adrian remarked sullenly. “I get to decide the outcome this time. I can choose my own fate; it’s not in the hands of someone who can’t see the world beyond his own family.”

“Fuck you, Adrian,” Deran wasn’t going to stand there and listen to him spew bullshit. “I didn’t send you away to protect my family; I did it to protect you.”

“I’m sure that’s how it feels to you, but to me, it was like being ripped away from everything and everyone I’ve ever known. You tried to strip my entire life away from me,” Adrian balled his hands into fists at his sides, fighting to remain in control. “What’s worse is you lied about it. You made me believe I would get to keep one thing, one sliver of who I was, and then you took that from me too.”

“I couldn’t go, Adrian,” And yeah, it was a decision he’d regretted since he made it, but he couldn’t take it back now. “I couldn’t…”

“Then you never should have told me that you would!” Adrian shouted, succumbing to his anger. “You shouldn’t have promised me that _**we**_ were going to go. You shouldn’t have brought up all that shit we used to dream about as kids, running away, being a family, just the two of us.”

“You wouldn’t have gone to the pier if you thought otherwise.”

“That would have been my choice, not your manipulation and well-meaning lies,” Adrian retorted, contempt dripping from his tone. “You know, you’ve been bitching at me for weeks about lying to you about what I had been doing, but you’ve been lying to me our whole lives. You pretended that this…what I thought was between us meant something to you—it’s not your fault that it doesn’t, you can’t help what you feel or what you don’t, but you didn’t have to lie to me.”

“You don’t know shit about how I feel. I’ve never lied—“ Finishing that sentence would only contradict the point he was trying to make. “Okay. I’ve lied about a lot of shit. It’s part of my life. It’s the first thing I learned to do. It’s second nature to me.”

“Oh, well, I guess that makes it okay.”

“I denied us for years, I know,” He knew how much he hurt Adrian in doing so for as long as he did. “But when I said…when I said what I said, I meant it. I still do.”

“I want to believe that, I told my sister I did, that you did, but it’s hard for me to trust a Cody these days.”

“I’m just a Cody to you now?”

“When the cops are involved, yeah.”

“The cops…” Fuck, they were all over the place, flip-flopping from one conversation to the next so quickly that Deran couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. “Will you fucking make up your mind about what we’re talking about, ‘cause I can’t keep up.”

“I’m going to handle this situation with Pearce and Dave,” Adrian squared his shoulders, standing firm in his resolve. “Me.”

“Pope and Craig are never going to agree to that,” Deran could hear his brothers screaming at him in his head for even considering it. “You know them, so you should know that.”

“Then tell me the plan, Deran,” Adrian gave him the floor. “What great plan do the Codys have to save the day?”

“I…I don’t know,” He needed more than two days to come up with something workable. “We’ll figure it out.”

“I know Craig would have shut Dave up yesterday if Renn hadn’t stopped him,” Adrian let Deran know he wasn’t oblivious to what the Codys had been doing behind his back. “Dave is innocent.”

“You keep saying that.”

“No one is going to hurt him over this shit, he doesn’t deserve it,” Adrian clenched his eyes shut, taking a deep breath. “I mean it, Deran. If one of you hurts him or has someone hurt him, that’s it, Deran, I’m done. I’m done with all of it and all of you.”

“What does that mean?” Deran recoiled, feeling his heart squeeze painfully in his chest. “What does ‘_I’m done’ _mean? You’re going to rat on us to protect him or a-as payback?”

“All that’s happened and you still think I’d flip on you?” Adrian froze, body going rigid. “You can be a real piece of shit, you know that?”

“What the fuck am I supposed to think when you say you’ll be done with us?”

“Is that all I am to you, hmm?” Adrian tilted his head to the side. “Just someone with the ability to betray you?”

“When the cops are involved, yeah,” Deran tossed Adrian’s own words back at him.

“The difference is, Deran, I have always protected you from the cops. It doesn’t matter what you did to me, how badly you hurt me, I always protected you—that is second nature to me,” Adrian acknowledged, lowering himself to sit on the steps. “Even when I hated you I protected you. I never hesitated. It was never a choice to me, Deran. Talking to the cops about you, it was never an option that entered into my mind. Ever since we were kids and I saw how your family treated you, you were mine to protect. So that’s what I did, I protected you.”

“I…” What the hell was he supposed to say to that? “You said…you said you’d be done. I-I don’t…I don’t understand what that means.”

“This, Deran. It means this, our friendship, our bond, our lo…” Adrian pressed a hand to his chest. “It means there’d be nothing left of us.”

“You’re trying to use what’s between us to get your way,” As much as he hated to admit it, that was more his area than Adrian’s. “That’s not you. Don’t do that. Don’t try to manipulate me; you’re no good at it.”

“Telling you not to kill someone doesn’t count as manipulation.”

“It does when there’s an ‘or else’ attached to it.”

“Well, asking nicely has never worked with you, so…”

“So your answer is manipulation?”

“Call it whatever you want, Deran,” Adrian threw his hands in the air in frustration. “Look, I know this Dave situation is my fault, that’s why I handled it the first time around. I knew how you were and I brought him into my life anyway. He was my mistake and I’m going to fix it.”

“How?” If Deran was going to entertain the idea, he at least needed to know what it was. “How are you going to fix it?”

“You’re not going to like it.”

“I haven’t liked a lot of the shit you’ve done lately, but I’m still here.”

“You really want to play the _who-stuck-around-through-the-most-bullshit _game with me?”

“No.”

“I’ve already spoken to my lawyer, he’s filing paperwork, trying to buy me some time to get things settled here,” Adrian glanced over his shoulder to the front door of the house. “I still need to talk to Dave, should probably do that in person to get him on board.”

“With what?” Deran was tired of being given the runaround, he just wanted a straight answer. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to convince Dave to amend whatever statement he made to Detective Pearce, and he’s going to name the person truly responsible for what happened to him,” Adrian explained, staring out into the darkness of the night. “I won’t deny it. I’ll confess that I threatened Dave to keep him quiet, that part’s kind of true, anyway. And I’ve got enough assault raps on my juvie record to make it believable.”

“No.”

“My attorney’s going to ask that I be released on bail pending my sentencing hearing so I can get my affairs in order. Given my recent trouble with the DEA, if the judge grants bail it’ll be a pretty high amount, and I’m going to need you to pay it,” Adrian carried on despite Deran’s protest. “And then I will make use of that counterfeit passport in my bag and go somewhere else, maybe not Indonesia, that’s as tainted as Belize now, but somewhere with no extradition. Maybe somewhere cold, I think the beach might remind me too much of home.”

“Did you hear me? I said no.”

“I don’t need your permission,” Adrian’s mind was made up. “It’s the only way, Deran. It keeps your family whole and keeps Dave safe.”

“You hate that I tried to send you away,” When he closed his eyes, he could still see the stricken expression on Adrian’s face from that night on the pier. “Now you’re game to go? What’s changed?”

“This time it’s my choice.”

“And what happens if you don’t make bail?” Deran would bet that he hadn’t even thought that far ahead. “Have you considered that? You’d go to prison for attempted murder, I think that’s going to carry a heavier sentence than the drug trafficking.”

“If that happens, I’ll deal with it.”

“That’s not a plan; it’s backing yourself into a corner.”

“One of us takes the fall or we all do, Deran,” Adrian said with a shrug of his shoulders. “It’s better if it’s me.”

“If your plan is to leave anyway, what’s to stop one of us from killing Dave before you get to him?” If he was going to lose Adrian either way, then what the hell was the point of letting him go through with his plan? “He dies, the cops lose their witness, and we’re all free.”

“I don’t want anyone else to die because of me,” Adrian murmured, guilt weighing heavily on his shoulders. “If he’s hurt over this, that’s it, Deran, you will never see or hear from me again. I will go somewhere you can’t follow.”

“Adrian…”

“If we do this my way, you can always come find me when you’re ready to start living your own life.”

“We’ve barely been able to go an hour without fighting since I’ve been here,” There was so much damage that hadn’t been sorted through, it was hard to imagine finding a glimmer of hope in the rubble. “But if…”

“We could never be together in Oceanside, Deran, that’s become obvious to me, there’s just too much…”

“I know,” It was a bitter pill to swallow after all the years they had spent trying to be together. “There’s too much there that can come between us.”

“The only way we would ever be able to be together, to really be together, to be anything to each other, is if we went away, like we did in Belize.”

“I thought Belize was tainted?”

“Only because we could never get back what we had there,” Adrian scuffed his shoe against the ground. “I’m not asking you to come with me this time, Deran. I’m not going to beg like I did on the pier. I’m just… The options there, there’s no clock on it. And it doesn’t have to mean…if you show up one day and the only thing left to salvage is our friendship…that would be enough.”

“We’ve been through too much to let that be the only thing left to salvage.”

“We’ll just have to see where we are if you ever come find me.”


	7. It is Not Clear Why We Choose the Fire Pathway

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd.  
Chapter title comes from: [Muddy Waters by LP](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss8t7a8n0U4)  
Gif sets: [Detective](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/189636236721/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-detective-i-meant-that-he), [Friends](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/189683151741/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-friends-there-was-always), [Houses](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/189862543466/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-houses-what-makes-you), [Safe Bet](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/189529228761/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-safe-bet-i-dont-have-to)
> 
> Set during Power 6x07 Like Father, Like Son.

People could say what the fuck they wanted about Kate, judge how she conducted herself and lived her life, or criticize her parenting skills, she didn't give a fuck. The fact of the matter was, she wasn't some uptight, controlling, cookie-cutter bitch, and she never wanted to be. She wasn't half as bad as people assumed from looking at her, more importantly, neither were her kids.

Jess was as close to perfect as any parent could hope for, beautiful, smarter than her three brothers combined, ballsy, confident, and the strongest person Kate had ever met. Out of all her children, Jess was the one Kate worried about most when she was small, a little girl growing up in a man's world was dangerous, not to mention exhausting. She had to be twice as tough as the boys and work twice as hard to prove herself. Jess never complained about the extra work, she balked at any obstacle in her path, barreled right through them to get where she wanted to be. Now that she was an adult, a mother herself, Jess was the only one of Kate's children to have her shit completely together -- her love life being the only exception.

Tommy and Jamie, yeah, they were drug dealers and murderers, but they had good hearts in their chests and heads on their shoulders. They were ambitious and passionate with dreams of succeeding and being recognized. While those dreams and ambitions had shifted to something more legitimate for Jamie, the end game remained the same. Tommy was on the same path as he'd always been, trying to be the biggest, best, and most powerful distro in New York City, but he wanted more now, things outside the life, a family, a wife and kids that he kept looking for in all the wrong places. Kate's oldest boys might not have been upstanding citizens by any means, but they were good men.

Adrian, he was another story. Adrian had come into the world unimpressed with it and bored with the people in it. He didn't seek out things like affection or attention from the people closest to him, hell the kid had self-soothed at a couple weeks old and potty trained himself when his father dropped the ball. It wasn't his fault that he was hesitant to ask for things he needed, she and Nico were so far gone by the time he was born, the kid practically raised himself, Jess and Tommy did what they could, but for the most part Adrian was left to figure things out on his own. He brought himself up as a boy and decided for himself what it meant to be a man, whether he lived up to his own expectations was a question only he could answer.

As different as her kids were, there were plenty of ways they were alike. They felt no shame about who they were or what they wanted. They were open with who they chose to love and didn't give a fuck what anyone else thought about it. She'd take complete credit for their openness, she never gave a shit who they brought home or what they did with them. She couldn't care less about what they got up to under her roof, so long as everyone was a willing participant.

Kate had allowed her children the space to explore what they liked, and while Jess and Tommy still showed a modicum of respect by keeping their sexual conquests out of the house or at the very least to their own bedrooms, Adrian had taken the lack of rules and ran with it. Case in point: the clothes currently scattered throughout her home, from the kitchen to the sofa in the den, up the stairs, and through the hall leading to Adrian's bedroom. The empty bottle of tequila on the bottom step and the grunts and moans coming from the bedroom certainly completed the picture.

Tommy and Jess would be pissed if they found out Adrian had fallen off the wagon and back onto his ex, but Kate was far more annoyed by the loud banging coming from the front door than the one coming from up the second floor.

"There's a goddamn doorbell!" She yapped as soon as she had the door open. "Try using it before you pound on someone's goddamn door first thing in the goddamn morning!"

"My apologies, Ms. Egan," The stranger on her porch offered an apologetic smile. "In my experience, a knock elicits a quicker response time than ringing a doorbell."

"Uh huh," Kate gave the man a quick onceover, noting the cheap, ill-fitting suit. "Let me guess, it's Detective Douchebag, right?"

"Actually, it's Detective Pearce, Ms. Egan," He corrected her, reaching for the badge hidden in the breast pocket of his suit jacket. "Your youngest son must have mentioned me."

"I don't need my son to tell me you're a douchebag," That was pretty clear from the way the man held himself. "You just got that look about ya."

"I meant that he must have told you I was a detective looking into him, Ms. Egan."

"No. When I see a douchebag, I just assume law enforcement," With the line of work her boys were in, those douchebags almost always turned out to be cops, like the one standing in front of her. "You know, the last time a cop was at my door about Adrian, they were accusing him of selling dope by the church down the block from our old apartment building."

"Was he?"

"No, he just fit the general description: white, blonde hair, blue eyes."

"Right," Pearce snorted. "Guess it was some other white boy running around a predominantly black neighborhood."

"Exactly,” It was Tommy the assholes had really been looking for, Adrian just got caught in the crossfire. "Tin stars were full of shit then, just like I'll bet you are now."

"Oh, not this time, I'm afraid," Pearce's tone was almost regretful, but his face was pure smugness. "May I come in, so we can sit down and talk?"

"You're not going to be here that long," To the best of her knowledge, this Detective Pearce character had no idea Adrian was in the house and she preferred to keep it that way. "Why don't you just tell me what you think he did so I can tell you you're full of shit."

"It's funny you'd say something like that, because I spoke to Adrian's father recently and he didn't have a clue about all the trouble Adrian's been in this year," Peace mentioned, stepping forward, further darkening her doorstep. "But he wasn't at all surprised."

"Nico's never had a clue about anything," Well, that wasn't entirely true, there was one thing. "I mean, he was a great lay, but dumb as dirt. The pretty but stupid type, if you catch my drift."

"I understand," Pearce nodded along. "The only response he had to Adrian's troubles was to say anything Adrian's done is no doing of his."

"I've got a paternity test that says differently," Two tests, actually, one for each kid she'd had with the prick. "You can't listen to a word that drunk bastard has to say. He’s the goddamn devil."

"He's the devil," Pearce pursed his lips. "Yet you still allowed him to take your two youngest children and raise them thousands of miles away."

"Hey, I was in a bad way back then," She'd been so loaded she barely had any recollection of the first five years of Adrian's life. "If I hadn't let Nico take them, the state would've thrown them into foster care."

"Maybe that wouldn't have been such a bad thing," Pearce proposed. "I wanted some background before I talked to Nico, so I pulled Jess and Adrian's DCFS files, they tell a violent story. Foster care would have been a blessing for them."

"Obviously you've never been in the system. There are some good foster parents, but there are also a lot of people just in it for the check, and some that are just sick perverts," Kate had spent time in the system as a kid, in between her mother's stints in prison, it was no goddamn picnic, and not something she would ever subject her children to. "You've seen my kids, right? They're gorgeous. Can you imagine how they looked when they were little? Sweet, innocent, angelic. The system would have chewed them up and spit them out. Nico was the lesser of evils."

"If you say so."

"You still haven't told me what you wanted with my youngest."

"He's a person of interest in a case I'm working," Pearce revealed, but didn't elaborate on much of the details outside prospective charges. "At the very least, I'll put him away for witness tampering and obstruction of justice. If he doesn't start talking, it's going to be murder for hire."

"You think Adrian's moonlighting as a hitman when he's not fixing surfboards?" Kate scoffed, shaking her head. "That's not my Adrian. He's not a violent person. Now if you would have said Tommy or Jess, I’d believe you, no problem, but not my Adrian."

"I agree, but I have to go where the evidence takes me, and in this case the evidence is telling me he was the one doing the hiring," Pearce clarified. "Between you and me, Ms. Egan, I only like Adrian for the witness tampering and obstruction. I think his boyfriend, Deran Cody, convinced his brother Andrew to kill someone Adrian was seeing, but as of now, the only evidence I have points to Andrew and Adrian, so..."

"You said he was a person of interest, so that means you have no proof of these allegations."

"I have a witness."

"Do you have a warrant?" It was going to take a lot more than that to get past her front door or anywhere near her kid. "Paperwork to extradite Adrian back to California?"

"Not yet," Pearce grunted, shifting on his feet. "I'm working on it."

"You got nothin'," Shocker. "So you're not going to speak to any of my goddamn kids without a warrant and their lawyers present."

"Ms. Egan--"

"Yeah, you can fucking go now."

* * *

"You ever wonder if we should have just stayed friends?"

"We were never just friends."

It wasn't a complete truth. Once upon a time, when they were little kids conquering the waves, school bullies, basic math, the alphabet, and disasters disguising themselves as parents, they were friends. Just friends. They were too young to be anything else or even understand there was something more to be.

It was difficult to pinpoint the change, to determine when exactly they shifted permanently from pals to lovers to the family they were trying find with the house in Oceanside. Their relationship couldn't be traced in a straight line, it was long and twisted, and veered off in every direction. There was nothing tangible or logical about it. They had never dated, and neither had truly confessed their feelings for each other until years down the line. Their first sexual encounter together couldn't really be counted, it was more casual experimentation brought about by copious amounts of alcohol.

Their first time was Craig's fault, really. He had driven them to a surfing competition a couple hours out of town, and after watching them both do well, he had boasted about being their coach to score himself a date. Deran and Adrian were left in the motel room with strict orders not to leave and a couple suggestions of what they could do to stave off the boredom, _“There's a joint in my bag and pay-per-view on the TV. Get high, watch some porn, and jerk off. Best night any thirteen year old could ask for." _As a general rule, Craig's advice was never to be taken seriously, Deran and Adrian knew that then, but they were young and stupid, and found a bottle of vodka in Craig's bag with the joint. Anything happened next could only be chalked up to lack of supervision and inquisitive minds.

They smoked, they drank, they sat too close together on the edge of the bed as they flipped through the adult channels on the pay-per-view, and then those fateful words were uttered _"We should try some stuff together, so we know what we're doing later."_ It was sloppy and dry and hurt like hell, but it didn't stop them from trying again and again until they got it right and figured out what was supposed to be so great about sex. It was three days before Craig finally remembered he'd left them there and returned to take them home, so they had plenty of times to practice and get it right.

They didn't talk about it after or when they got home. Things didn't get weird, it didn't mess with their friendship, it was just something they did one weekend that no one needed to know about. In fact, they didn't speak of it until a year or so later after they'd lost their 'other' virginities while on a double date with a couple girls they met on the pier. Adrian had left the encounter fully confident that he was gay, while Deran had only shrugged and said it was okay, but could have been better, he just needed to practice with girls like he'd done with Adrian.

Adrian didn't count their first time as a changing of the tide in their relationship. It was youthful experimentation by two trusted friends, they hadn't meant for it to be anything more than that. If they were being honest, it was Adrian's fault when things did take a turn, he made the first move, took a chance.

That first kiss, the one with real intent behind it, they were seventeen, and Adrian had just moved out of his car and into his first real apartment. Deran helped him haul in all his worldly possessions: surfboards, a skateboard, a laptop with a cracked screen, a garbage bag full of clothes, and a box of books Tao's mom had let him store in their garage. Deran had brought pizza and beer and they spent the day drinking and joking about what a shithole the place was, eventually passing out on the camping pad Adrian was using as a temporary bed.

Falling asleep together, waking up together, it wasn't anything new. Adrian had seen the morning light cascading over Deran's features, illuminating his blond locks and pale eyes hundreds of times before, and it always left him thinking that Deran was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Deran didn't slap his hand away when he reached out to card his fingers through his hair, he moaned softly and moved into Adrian's touch. Adrian took Deran's acceptance of intimacy as permission, taking things a step further, moving in closer, hesitating briefly to give him a chance to say no before pressing their lips together.

It was slow and soft, almost delicate in its innocence. It wasn't the kind of kiss seeped in desperation or passion that had been denied for far too long. It was a confession of feelings he was just beginning to understand, and an invitation to something they could have together that was ultimately rejected.

_"Don't do that again,"_ Deran murmured in a hoarse voice, eyes dark and hooded. _“Don’t.”_

_"O-okay,"_ Adrian jerked back, fingers catching on a tangle in Deran's hair as he extracted them. _"I'm_ _sorry."_

_"We can't do that,"_ Deran caught Adrian's wrist in his hand._ "I-I'm not like you."_

_"I didn't... I'm sorry,"_ He hadn't thought about Deran in terms of being straight or gay or bi, he was always just his best friend. _"I'm sorry."_

_"I can't be like you."_

_"I won't do it again, I promise."_

The world didn't fall apart. Their friendship didn't hit a road block. Deran didn't run away screaming because Adrian was attracted to him. Nothing changed on the outside, but inside Adrian wrestled with his feelings for Deran, knowing his friend would never reciprocate them... until Belize that is.

Belize was a fantasy they'd cooked up in their heads for years. It was a desperate knock at the door, pleas of "_let's go_", and cry for freedom and escape the invisible bars surrounding Oceanside. They could be who they really were there without fear of judgment or consequence. It was the first and last place either of them had ever taken an easy breath.

Deran had rented them a house there, a little shack on a small stretch of private beach they had all to themselves for as long as they could afford it. The hours they didn't spend in the water were spent exploring the country, diving the reef, hiking through the mountains and jungles, and visiting the Mayan ruins. In the evenings, they'd find some dive bar to have a few drinks and scam dickheads out of their money through pool or poker. They ended the day as they started it, in the water, swimming under the moonlight and the stars, letting the loll of the waves wind them down.

Adrian always woke first, he liked to sit in the sand and watch the sunrise, sometimes he even got a few good waves in before Deran even managed to peel his eyes open and greet the day. He didn't much like surfing alone, he enjoyed the feeling of Deran watching him as he glided along the surface of the ocean. Some mornings, Deran would watch him from the patio of house, Adrian would come out of the water to join him, and they'd share a cup of coffee before returning to the waves together-- that's how it started that day.

Adrian carried his surfboard under one arm, shaking water from his hair as he crossed the beach. He barely had a chance to set his board down and grab a towel off a lawn chair before Deran was pushing him up against the side of the house, tangling a hand in Adrian's wet hair, yanking his head up and slamming their mouths together. It was more tongue and teeth than lips, and the fingers Deran wrapped around his throat to keep him in place left a bruise and indents from his nails that Adrian could swear he still had the scars from. It was aggressive and a just the right side of painful, but that was Deran.

And that's how it was with them, wasn't it? Deran pushed and shoved, bit and clawed, while Adrian held on, kissed and caressed. Adrian was gentle with Deran because no one else was, and contrary to what some might believe, Deran was breakable if not handled with care. Deran had figured out long ago that Adrian wasn't as breakable as he appeared to be, Deran could be as hard and rough as he wanted and Adrian would take it without protest or complaint. It was careful balance between them forged from years of observation and understanding of what the other needed, it just took that trip to Belize to show them how far that need extended.

Coming home from Belize after catching a glimpse of something there, a promise of what could have been, what they could have had, who they could have been together, that was a special kind of hell. Belize was everything that had always dreamt of as kids and they'd walked away from it, returning to the people and the place that was intent on destroying them. The remnants of a childhood belief in happily ever after were lost once they were home, and they both grieved that loss in different ways. Deran turned his sadness into anger, internalized it, and turned it on a part of himself that he wasn't ready to accept. Adrian, he just learned to accept that while they could remain friends in the light, Deran would only love him in the dark.

"We were never just friends," Deran mumbled once more against the bare flesh of Adrian's chest. "There was always something else there, even when we were kids it was there, we just didn't know what it meant."

"Yeah, I think you're right," There had to be something there, hiding beneath the surface that explained why they had clung to each other with such ferocity as small children and as adults. "I just...sometimes I think it'd be easier for us to be honest with each if we weren't..."

"It'd be worse if we had just stayed friends. I mean, we hide things from each other now, lie about things we've done, 'cause neither of us want to screw this up now that we can finally be together, and keeping shit from each other is easier than fighting about it.” Deran murmured, resting his head on Adrian's shoulder. "If we were just friends, we would be lying about something bigger than that. It would have ruined us."

"Right," As if they didn't end up ruining each other anyway. "I didn't mean it in a bad way. Sometimes I just think about where we'd be if things were different."

"You think you'd be here right now?" Deran asked, glancing up hesitantly through his lashes. "I don't mean in bed, I mean all this crap with Jack and the Serbians..."

"That had nothing to do with you or our relationship," Adrian had made that decision while he was on the circuit, while he and Deran were still in the distant stage of reconnecting. "I did that on my own, for my own reasons. I may have gotten a one-up with the Serbian's because my brother's involved with them, but it was no one's choice but my own."

"Yeah, well, some of our friends think you never would have gotten involved with Jack if not for me," Deran grunted, disentangling himself from Adrian's body. "I'm in the life, so you had to be to."

"Jack was my friend, you only knew him because of me, and I only knew him 'cause Jess was friends with his sister in high school--"

"So it's Jess's fault," Deran perked up. "Can I tell her?"

"It's not my sister's fault either," Adrian kicked Deran's foot under the blanket. "It's no one's fault but mine. I did this. I got myself into this, no one else."

"If you say so."

"It really bothers you, doesn't it?" Adrian hadn't considered how his friends and family would react to his work with the Serbians when he had accepted Jason's job offer, but he understood why they were so pissed, and it had nothing to do with the DEA thing. "I get why you hate the idea of me being in this life, it's risky and dangerous, and it tarnishes me."

"Tarnishes?" Deran quirked a brow. "What's that mean?"

"I've screwed up before--"

"Not on this level."

"You've screwed up before."

"That's different."

"Because?"

"Because you're not me, Adrian," Deran scowled. "You're better than this shit."

"I grew up in this world, same as you, Deran," Adrian's world might not have been a den of thieves like Deran's, but growing up surrounded by drug dealers was not a normal childhood. "You were still a little kid when Smurf found a use for you on a job. I was a toddler when Tommy would take me out with him all day and sells drugs out of my backpack at parks and street corners. I could cut a line of coke for my mom before I could even color inside the lines properly."

"Yeah, our childhoods were fucked up," Deran rolled his eyes. "That doesn't excuse shit."

"I'm glad you recognize that."

"Hey."

"The point is, Deran, it was just as likely that I would end up neck-deep in my family business as you did in yours," It had just taken him a lot longer to get there. "I didn't want this anymore than you wanted to be one of Smurf's lackeys, and I got lucky, I didn't have to be this, my family didn't want me to be--"

"You chose to be," Deran muttered scornfully. "I didn't get a choice."

"You have one now. You had one before she ever died. You guys are the ones who kept going back to her for help or to use her for her connections or so she could pull your asses out of the fire," They had gotten out before, pulled jobs without her, but they always ended up back in her web. "You said you wanted out of the life, you were going to buy the building the bar was in and then you were done. You had the money to buy the building, more than enough, in fact, but you didn't do it. You decided to buy a house on the beach--"

"That was for you, 'walk to surf, walk to work'."

"Oh, suck and fuck me, Deran."

"I already did," Deran pulled the blanket off them both to reveal their naked bodies. "We can go again if you forgot."

"You know, I would, but we're out of tequila," Adrian had no one to blame but himself, he was the one who invited Deran into his mom's house the night before to have a drink, and let one drink turn into a full bottle, and so on and so forth. "I'm not saying it was a mistake, just ill timed."

"I don't agree, but whatever."

"And for the record, you are not putting the house on me. I just wanted you to have a place to shower, so I didn't have to stick my hands in that grease covered mop on your head anymore," Fuck, Adrian hadn't even known the houses they were looking at were for the both of them until Smurf had brought it up at the dinner. "You could have bought the building and turned the upstairs-- whatever the fuck was upstairs-- into an apartment or something. Fuck. We could have moved into my place instead of Chad taking over my lease while I was on the tour."

"Your place was a rental, I wanted to buy," Deran muttered, stretching out along side Adrian on the bed. "What's the house have to do with you being in the drug game?"

"Nothing, really, I was just making a point," A point that clearly got away from him. "We both have made choices to be a thief and a drug dealer or trafficker or whatever the fuck I am or was. From my prospective, you seem to think it's cool for you to do something dangerous that can land you in jail but it's not okay for me."

"It's not that I'm not okay with it, it's that it's just not you," Deran argued, staring up at the ceiling. "You never wanted this life. You were legit, man. You had the shop. You were gonna go pro on the circuit... You were going to have everything you wanted without crossing over to the dark side."

"Except I couldn't have had any of it without the dark side – is that really the term we're going with?" Adrian shook his head. "Tao and I had to rent the building for _Real Surf_ from your mother, because we couldn't afford one anywhere else. I know she used the place to wash money, she put one price on the rental agreement and charged us a different price. And where the hell do you think I got the money to pay you back what you gave me for the surf tour? I didn't just pull it out of my ass, Deran. I got that working for the Serbs."

"Is that why you--"

"No. I started working for the Serbs before that," It had just taken him a while to earn that kind of cash. "Two things in my life I've gotten legitimately, Deran. Two. The Wagoneer-- May she rest in peace."

"She was a piece of garbage in need of repairs that cost a hell of a lot more than she was worth."

"That doesn't mean you take her to the junkyard while I'm out of town."

"I gave you the two bucks I got for parting her out," Deran chuckled, earning a sharp elbow to his ribs. "Hey! She wasn't safe to drive. Someone had to put her down, you wouldn't have done it."

"I want you to remember that when the Scout goes missing."

"Not the Scout," Deran shuddered. "What was the second legitimate thing?"

"You." The core of their relationship, their love and friendship, it wasn't built on a con or manufactured from a lie, at the base it was just two kids playing in the ocean with dreams of a life just out of their reach. "We didn't swindle each other into this. We didn't start on lies. We were never innocent, but there was something...honest about us in the beginning."

"There was," Deran agreed, brushing his hand over Adrian's on the bed. "What the hell happened?"

"You got angrier and angrier," Adrian sighed, resisting the urge to curl in on himself as he recalled Deran's violent streak. "And I changed. I stopped being the person you thought I was."

"Okay," Deran took a deep breath. "Who do you think I thought you were or whatever?"

"You said I was better than this life, the drug shit," Adrian had never believed he was particularly suited for the life, but he never thought he was better than it. "Why?"

"Because you're good."

"Except I'm not, not any more than you are."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not," He wasn't who Deran needed to believe he was, he never had been. "You're not what you think you are either. I know you think you're a bad person because of what you're family does. You think you're bad and you hate yourself for it, but you believe if someone you think is good can love you, then you can't be all that bad. The thing is, Deran, you're not bad. You've never been bad. You've done bad things, but that's not you. And I love you, but I'm not...I've never been that good person you think I am."

"Adrian--"

"My brothers have killed countless people. They've told me all the awful things they've done. They've even planned murders right in front of me, and I did nothing. I didn't stop them. I didn't warn anyone. I didn't try to talk them out of it. I'm complicit in that," Adrian had an unrestricted view of his brothers' world since he was a little kid and had never said a word against the things they had done. "Tommy strangled his last girlfriend to death for hiring someone to kill Jamie. I know the likelihood of 'Keisha repeating Holly's mistake and I haven't said a word to her. If something happens to her, I'm complicit in that too. There’s as much blood on my hands as there is on Tommy and Jamie's, because I didn't do anything. I just...I let it all happen."

"You are not responsible for what they did."

"I'm complicit," His love for his brothers kept him from doing the right thing when the time came. "I've known exactly who they were since I was small. I've seen the damage they've done to each other, themselves, our family, and I just let it keep happening."

"That doesn't make you a bad person," Deran swallowed thickly. "You're just trapped between your family and your conscience."

"I know them the same way I know you, Deran. I know every good thing there is to know," Adrian had seen more good in Deran than Deran would ever admit to having. "I know the darkest parts of you and I love you anyway, and I think that's what you struggle with."

"If you knew the things I've done, things I haven't told you..." Deran tensed, voice growing hoarse. "You would have run away screaming."

"I know more than you tell me and I'm still here," Adrian still loved him, in spite of it all. "I screwed up once, and you bailed."

"I didn't."

"You did, maybe not right away, but you did," It hurt a hell of a lot more than anything else Adrian had experienced with Deran in their years together. "You can't accept that I'm no better than anyone else in your life, and if I'm no better, than neither are you, and you can't stand that."

"If we're both awful, that's all we could ever be," Deran chewed on his bottom lip. "If one of us is…is good, then we've both got a chance to be better."

"You are the only one responsible for you who want to be, Deran. If you want to change, to be better, that's a choice you have to make," Adrian had urged Deran to be open to who he was, but he never asked Deran to change or get out of the life, it would have been wrong of him to ask him to completely change who he was. "It's not…it's not up to me to fix what you think is wrong with you."

"I didn't really mean it that way." Deran cleared his throat, adjusting the pillow beneath his head. "Look, I don't really care how you think of yourself and your complicity in your family's actions or mine, because I know who you are too."

"I'm gonna stop you there."

"No, you're not."

"I've already been mind-fucked once in the last 48hrs," It was hard enough to be in his own head with Jason's personality dissection bouncing around in there. "I don't need it from you too."

"You love your brothers, but you've always hated what they do, how they do it, that people get hurt, that they hurt people. I've always been the same for me with my family. I gave into it. You said it, even when I had the chance to get out I stayed," Deran grumbled, disappointed with himself. "You could've started working for Tommy and Jamie when you were a kid, could've been running things right along with them, but you didn't. You didn't like it, you didn't want it, so you chose a different path."

"Until I didn't," And now here they were, the life they had tried to build in shambles, because Adrian couldn't say no anymore. "I still hate it, so do you."

"And yet..."

"My family didn't pull me into this," He wouldn't put his sins on them. "Jason asked, I said yes. That's not on any one but me."

"Jason only asked because of who your brothers are," Deran pointed out. "You wouldn't have said yes to just anyone, you're not that stupid. You accepted Jason's offer 'cause you knew who he was, that your brothers worked for him."

"So neither of us were strong enough to escape our families is what you're saying?"

"You were, for awhile," Deran turned onto his side to face Adrian. "I used to take that as, like, a sign or something, that if you could keeping saying no--"

"I never said no," Adrian had never felt the same pressures as Deran had to join the family business. "My brothers never wanted me in the business, they would have allowed it without much of a complaint if I'd shown an interest, but they never tried to push me into it."

"I know."

"I'm sorry, Deran." Adrian sighed, pulling the sheet with him as he climbed off the bed. "I'm sorry I didn't turn out to be the person you needed to lead you out of all of it."

"No, you were right the first time, it wasn't your responsibility," Deran acknowledged, raking his fingers through his hair. "If I want out, I've got to do it myself."

"Something like that, yeah," Adrian nodded, taking his phone off the bedside table to check for any messages or missed calls, one in particular capturing his attention. "Why does your brother want me to meet him for breakfast?"

"My memory's a little hazy, but I think I might have texted him sometime between the shots of tequila and when clothes started coming off last night," Deran said through a yawn. "Told him about your plan to deal with the Dave stuff."

"How likely is it that he just wants to thank me for volunteering to take the fall?"

"Look who’s got jokes this morning.”

"Right," It was probably for the best, Adrian wouldn’t even know how to accept gratitude from a Cody. "You coming with me?"

"No, I think Pope and I have had our fill of each other this week," Deran exhaled loudly, covering his face with his arm. "I'm going to sit this one out. You think your mom would mind if I slept off the rest of my hangover here?"

"Not so long as you clean up the mess we made of her house when you get up."

"Why can't you do that?"

"I've got to shower and meet your brother before he shows up here and catches wind of this," Adrian gestured between their naked bodies. "They don’t get to dictate who we can or can't sleep with, but you know if they find out..."

"We'll never hear the end of it," Deran huffed, rubbing his eyes. "Fine, I'll clean up, just as soon as you admit I was right."

"About what?"

"Our problems are always easier to fix after we've slept together."

"I don't know if we fixed anything, but it's easier for us to talk about them after sex," It helped that one of them-- not Adrian-- tended to get chatty after sex, and had a habit of turning what should have been a nice, quiet afterglow into couples therapy. "And when did you ever say that?"

"Okay, I might have thought it, not said it..."

"Go back to sleep, Deran," Adrian tossed the sheet on top of him. "Pray that my mom forgets you’re here and that Jess and Tommy don't show up unannounced."

"Will do."

* * *

It was only mid-fucking morning and Tommy's day was already fixing to be a shitty one. He started by trying to convince LaKeisha to start carrying the gun he'd bought for her protection, and then had a nice argument with her about Tariq before he'd even had breakfast. Picking up his shipment from Jason was supposed to be the normal, easy part of the goddamn day, but his connect had other ideas when he had his men pull Tommy into his office.

"Hey, Tommy," Jason waved him over. "Get over here."

"I was just loading up my shipment," Tommy had no intention of sticking around for a chat. "What's up?"

"There's someone I want you to meet. My guy right here, one of my highest-earning distros in New York City, Tommy Egan," Jason introduced the pair, a wide-grin spread across his face. "Tommy, Rodolfo Ramirez."

"Yo, I know that," Tommy glanced briefly at the tat on the man's neck. "Los Reyes, right?"

"That's right," Rodolfo nodded, shaking his hand. "What you know about how we bang on the West Coast?"

"Not much, but I got fam from around that way," Tommy said with a chuckle. "We fucks with that Cali herb hard."

"Tommy is Adrian's brother," Jason clarified for the visiting distro. "After Adrian and Ms. Randall acquired the Los Angeles ports for me, Adrian handpicked Rodolfo to run them."

"Oh yeah?" Tommy scrutinized the other man. "How you and my brother know each other?"

"I worked at his dad's tattoo parlor for a couple years in another life," Rodolfo said with a grimace. "But, uh, it wasn’t for me.”

"You don't gotta front, you can just say you were tired of Nico's bullshit," Tommy had been tired of that dickhead’s bullshit five minutes after meeting him, unfortunately, he was forced to put up with him for over seven goddamn years. "You and Adrian stayed tight, though, huh?"

"Tight enough, man."

"As you know, I'm looking toward further expansion in the LA market," Jason clapped Rodolfo on the back. "I may send you out to SoCal to work with Rodolfo."

"Jase told me you flipped 40 crates in two days," Rodolfo mentioned, looking impressed by the feat. "That's a lot of weight. You got a business partner?"

"Hell no. I'm a solo act," Although he'd admit, he had some help along the way. "I'm, uh, confused. Isn't Adrian supposed to be the SoCal proxy? Why aren't you sending him out there, Jason? Those are his stomping grounds."

"I was under the impression that, given Adrian's latest legal troubles, he would soon be headed for a prison cell or, I would hope, somewhere with no extradition," Jason hummed, seemingly unaffected by the loss of personnel. "Either way, he's not going to be much use to me for much longer."

There it was, the bad fucking news Tommy was waiting for, and of fucking course it had to be about Adrian, because the kid couldn't keep himself out of trouble for a single goddamn day.

"New legal trouble, right," Tommy had no idea what that meant, but he would play it like he was in on the secret. "So, uh, I'll get him to fill me in on the ways of the SoCal drug trade."

"Have him give you Rodolfo's information," Jason suggested. "I'd like the two of you to be in contact with each other from here on out."

"Okay," Tommy nodded, smiling tightly. "Well, it's nice to meet Rodolfo. Guess we're going to be gettin' to know each other."

"Guess so," Rodolfo shook his hand once more. "Nice to meet you too."

* * *

Adrian left his mom's house without dark cloud or sense of foreboding that had been following him for months. Things felt semi-settled with Deran, he had a plan for the Dave and Pearce situation, and while it wasn't without its risks, it didn't ruin as many lives as the alternatives would have. Yeah, there was a lot that could still go wrong, but it didn't feel as dire or suffocating as things had when he was dealing with the feds. He wasn't going to allow whatever issues Pope had with the plan to deter him from it.

“You know, I was going to start this by thanking you for everything you did to help with Tariq and me,” Adrian put a pin in that plan once he took in the disaster zone that was previously his brother’s apartment. “But now I’d like to know the name of the hurricane that blew through here this morning.”

“That would be Jess and Charlie Dolan,” Pope responded, scowling at the mess. “Jess was trying to pack up the rest of their stuff and Charlie was throwing a tantrum; things got a little hectic.”

“Gotcha,” No one could thrash a place quite like a Dolan-Egan woman. “They’re leaving tonight.”

“Yeah, so am I,” Pope nudged his dufflebag on the floor. “Before I get dragged into more of your family drama.”

“All it took was a week, huh,” Adrian had been putting up with Cody drama for twenty-five years, and the Codys couldn’t even handle his for more than a week. “Deran going with you?”

“I doubt it given the size of the hickey on your neck,” Pope gestured to the love-mark peeking out from Adrian’s shirt collar. “Guess you guys reconnected.”

“That’s one way to look at it,” Tequila may have helped things along there. “We talked. We’re on the same page about a few things now.”

“One of those things your plan to fall on your sword?” Pope questioned, crossing his arms over his chest. “’Cause I can’t see Deran getting behind that.”

“He understands it’s the best play,” He wasn’t completely on board yet, but he’d reached a grudging acceptance. “You don’t go to jail, no one dies, I get out from under the Serbians, and once again Pearce doesn’t get his man. It’s a win-win.”

“Unless it goes bad,” Pope acknowledged, choosing a pessimistic outlook on things. “You don’t make bail, you end up in prison for a long time.”

“And you don’t trust me to keep my mouth shut if I’m locked up,” Adrian wouldn’t kid himself into thinking Pope cared about his wellbeing on the inside. “Well, you don’t have to worry, if I don’t make bail, Tommy and Jamie will get me out.”

“How?”

“Not really your concern,” If that contingency plan didn’t involved the Codys, the Codys didn’t need to know. “They’ll get me out of police custody. I’ll get out of the country.”

“By yourself?” Pope cocked his head to the side. “Why didn’t you just go to Indonesia when Deran sent you away?”

“I wasn’t going to be forced out of my home by the Codys,” This time he would walk away on his own terms. “You guys already believe you control Oceanside. I wasn’t going to let you think you could control me.”

“If I go along with this, it’s going to be under one condition,” Pope said, dark eyes boring into Adrian’s blue ones. “You take Deran with you.”

“That’s not your choice or mine,” Adrian and Deran might have been on better terms as of that morning, but that didn’t mean he was going to delude himself into thinking circumstances had changed, that Deran had changed. “We can’t decide how his life is going to play out.”

“He wants to go,” Pope insisted. “He wanted to go with you before.”

“But he didn’t,” He had left Adrian crushed and humiliated at the goddamn pier, and Adrian wasn’t going to set himself up for that again. “He doesn’t know how to live for himself; he only knows how to live for Smurf. One day, I hope, he’ll figure it out.”

“_Tommy!”_ LaKeisha voice echoed through the apartment as she slammed through the front door suddenly. “Tommy! You here—“

“He’s not,” Adrian interjected over the woman’s shrill shouting. “It’s just me and Pope.”

“Oh,” ‘Keisha deflated, slumping her shoulders. “I need to talk to him about something.”

“Anything I can help with?”

“Probably not.”

“Hey, I’m sorry about the attitude during all the Tariq stuff,” Adrian and Jess hadn’t been wrong in what they said, but they could have been nicer about how they said it. “It was a tense situation and everyone was on edge, but that’s no excuse. I’m sorry.”

“Thank you,” ‘Keisha smiled. “Just don’t do it again.”

“I’ll try not to,” He couldn’t make any promises, though. “You sure I can’t help you with whatever’s going on?”

“Tommy asked me to do inventory at the warehouse, when I did, I found product missing,” ‘Keisha revealed, shucking off her coat and hanging it over a chair. “I asked Grim and Spanky about it, they got defensive.”

“Of course they did,” Pope muttered. “You accused them of stealing.”

“Shut up, Pope,” Adrian hushed the other man. “’Keisha, I don’t think Grim and Spanky stole from the warehouse. Grim’s loyal and Spanky’s not stupid enough to rip Tommy off.”

“Yeah, I’ve been going over it in my head on the drive over and I think you’re right,” She replied, resting her hands on her hips. “Tariq ever tell you guys where he got the pills he was selling?”

“He got ‘em from Kanan,” That was the story ‘Riq had tried to spin to Adrian and Tommy when they confronted him about dealing for Vincent, and at the time they had no reason to think it was a lie. “Why? You think he stole from Tommy? I know you’ve got issues with Tasha and Jamie, but to take it out on ‘Riq is out of line.”

“I’m out of line?” ‘Keisha sneered, stepping toward him. “Oh, I get it. You’re drinking the St. Patrick Kool-Aid like Tommy.”

“What?” Adrian wasn’t entirely sure what she meant, but it felt like an insult. “Look, Tariq wouldn’t steal from Tommy.”

“Like he wouldn’t lie about dealing when Tommy told him to stop, right? Like he wouldn’t set up Kanan behind Tommy’s back, right? I know he helped Tommy with that Proctor shit too,” LaKeisha listed off Tariq’s offenses like they were personal slights against her. “You and Tommy, man, you don’t see what Tariq is now. It’s like you won’t let yourselves see that he’s not the same kid we knew growing up.”

“We see it,” It was hard to miss how much the kid had changed when it was constantly slapping them in the face. “But you have to understand that he’s still just a kid, LaKeisha. He’s a kid making grownup plays in a world he doesn’t understand.”

“So we’re just supposed to ignore all the shit he’s done, ‘cause he’s a kid?”

“No. No, of course not,” Their nephew needed to be held accountable, just not to the same standard as an adult. “Okay, look, the way I see it, until we have confirmation of who actually took the pills, Tariq or someone else, we’ve got two problems, and we can’t have Tommy’s focus split like that.”

“What do you suggest?”

“I’ll go to the warehouse and talk to Grim and Spanky,” If anyone knew who had access to the warehouse and opportunity to steal the drugs, it would be the two of them. “You can tell Tommy your theory about ‘Riq, but do not sell it as fact. Family first, okay? Tommy needs to focus on getting Tariq back on track.”

“You can’t—“ LaKeisha’s protest was cut off by a knock on the door. “I swear to God, if that’s a St. Patrick…”

“I’ll get it,” Adrian crossed the living room to yank open the door, finding his nephew standing on the other side. “’Riq. Hey, buddy.”

“Hey, Uncle A, is Uncle Tommy here?” Tariq stepped into the apartment. “I tried calling, but he wasn’t picking up.”

“Who’s asking for Tommy?” ‘Keisha questioned the boy. “You or Ghost?”

“Look, I’m not here to bring no trouble, all right?” Tariq ducked his head. “I-I need to talk to Tommy. Ghost pulled a gun on me this morning.”

“What? Are you okay?” Adrian gripped his nephews shoulder, squeezing it comfortingly. “What happened?”

“He woke me up by cocking a gun in my face,” Tariq scrunched up his face in annoyance. “He was trying to scare me straight or some shit.”

“Good, somebody should have whooped your ass a long time ago,” ‘Keisha remarked curtly. “Pretending to be something you’re not.”

“LaKeisha!” Adrian snapped at the woman. “You wave a gun in your kids face when he fucks up? You beat his ass?”

“Of course not,” LaKeisha huffed, but stood her ground. “But my kid ain’t never pulled this kind of shit.”

“Adrian’s old man’s an abusive son of a bitch,” Pope interjected, sharing some Dolan family history he had no rights to. “He’s a little touchy about shit like that.”

“I need to talk to Tommy, Uncle,” ‘Riq tugged on Adrian’s shirt sleeve, playing into the kid role, like he knew that’s how Adrian still saw him. “Is he in Brooklyn?”

“Why would he be in Brooklyn, ‘Riq?” ‘Keisha asked, an inscrutable expression on her face. “What do you know about Brooklyn?”

“Nothing. I don’t know,” Tariq shrugged. “He mentioned it once.”

“You know what, you gotta go,” ‘Keisha moved around them to pull open the front door. “I got nothing but love for you, ‘Riq, but I need you to go. Every time you come around, Ghost shows up, and we can’t afford that shit right now. And I put myself on the line for one too many times. I’m all out of favors. Stay away from us.”

“By ‘us’ she means herself and her kid. She doesn’t speak for anyone else,” Adrian said pointedly, making sure his nephew understood their family wasn’t giving him the cold shoulder or turning their backs on him. “I’ll call Tommy, tell him you’re looking for him, all right?”

“Thanks, Uncle A.”

* * *

Deran’s morning had started off well enough, waking up with Adrian had been, well, expected given the amount of tequila they’d knocked back the previous night, but also welcome change from a cold and empty bed. Yeah, okay, the afterglow had taken a few rough turns that could have left them reeling, yet they both seemed to breathe a little easier once it was over. It had been as close to a relaxed morning as Deran had in weeks, shit, even Adrian’s mom had been nice to him when he finally pulled himself out of bed.

Kate making him breakfast should have been the biggest tipoff that something was amiss, his day was about to go south fast. It really wasn’t much of a surprise when that downhill slope came to him in the form of one and only Jess Dolan.

“I didn’t come to pick a fight with you,” Jess started as she poured herself a cup of coffee. “I just want to talk about you and my brother and how this all plays out.”

“Okay,” He supposed a talk was better than the alternative where she just yelled at him over shit she assumed he was going to do. “I’m sure you’ve already got it all figured out, so…”

“I don’t, that’s what scares me,” Jess admitted, sitting in the empty chair across from him. “I know there’s more going on than Adrian’s saying, but I’m trying to trust that he has it under control.”

“He does,” Or, at least, he managed to convince Deran that he had things on lock. “He’s got a plan no one is going to like, but it’s the one that makes the most sense.”

“For him or for you?” Jess asked, hints of irritation in her voice before abandoning the question in favor of another. “This plan involve him leaving?”

“How do you know that?”

“I think it’s finally sunk in for him that Oceanside isn’t really where he belongs,” Jess murmured somberly, dropping her gaze. “New York isn’t either. He likes it here, but it’s Mom and Tommy’s place, it isn’t his.”

“Oceanside is his home,” It had been since the very first time he stepped foot on its beaches. “He belongs there with you and me and his friends.”

“We want that to be true, he wants that to be true, but it’s not, and that’s no one’s fault, it’s just how it is,” She acknowledged, fidgeting with the turtle pendant on her necklace. “Adrian’s never really had a place of his own, you know, a place he felt he belonged, a place that was home.”

“_**Oceanside is his home**_,” Deran repeated, refusing to believe anything else. “He’s just restless, that’s why he keeps…”

“Keeps moving, trying to be somewhere else? Why the two of you spent your childhoods making plans to runaway?” Jess gnawed on her bottom lip, shaking her head. “Adrian tried to force it, force himself to settle down in Oceanside, make it his home whether it felt that way or not. That’s what opening Real Surf with Tao was about; it was the closest he’s ever been to putting down roots.”

“And he jumped at the chance to sell his half,” Deran recalled what Adrian had said about the shop the afternoon they confronted him about working with the Serbs. “Then he enrolled in college only to dropout a few weeks later to go on the surf tour.”

“That house you bought was never going to be his, not because of how much it cost or because he had to make himself scarce when your brothers came over, I mean, they were factors, sure, but in the end…” Jess paused, gathering her thoughts. “He never would have stayed for long. He would have found a reason to go on the road, come back sporadically. You would have gotten tired of it, found someone else, he would have found out and let you go so you could be happy, and then he would have stayed gone.”

“Pope told me that I’d been trying to run away since I was a kid,” Deran hadn’t thought much on it at the time, too preoccupied by overwhelming feelings of sadness and loss. “That’s what the bar was about, me trying to put distance between me and my family, but when I had the chance to finally be free of them, to be with the only person who’s even given a damn about me…I didn’t take it.”

“It was never your brothers you were trying to get away from Deran, it was Smurf,” Jess determined with the confidence of someone who had spent a considerable amount of time with his family. “Without her to fuel your hate, you have no reason to go.”

“Except to be with Adrian,” Adrian had been willing to sacrifice his whole world for him and his family, and when the time came Deran couldn’t bring himself to do the same. “I don’t even know why I-I couldn’t… Why I didn’t go. It was shitty circumstances, but it was what we always talk about. It was the dream.”

“Dreams die.”

“Not that one,” That need, the yearning to be somewhere far away, just him and Adrian, it was still very much there, burrowed deep into his soul. “I still want that, I’m just…”

“Scared that it wouldn’t be everything you dreamed of, that it wouldn’t live up to your expectations,” Jess surmised, a sad smile on her face. “It won’t be, nothing ever does or will, but it could’ve been something great if you would have let it.”

“Why does it bother you so much that I didn’t go? You hate me,” He understood her feelings toward him completely, but that was besides the point. “You hate me and Adrian being together. You should have been thrilled that I stayed behind.”

“I was supposed to be thrilled that after all my brother did for you and your train wreck of a family, you just threw him away like a piece of trash?” Jess snapped, amiable mood turning sour. “He gave up everything for you and you just…you didn’t care.”

“I cared. I care,” He cared for Adrian more than anyone else in his life, he always had. “I know what being with me has cost him.”

“No, you don’t, you couldn’t possibly,” Jess growled, digging her nails into the wood of the tabletop. “You know, despite it all, despite all the times you’ve hurt him, he still sees something in you, he stills loves you and wants to be with you.”

“I want to be with him,” That hadn’t changed, he doubted it ever would. “I want to go with him when he goes this time.”

“You wanted to go with him last time,” Jess noted, unimpressed with his declaration. “There’s nothing different about the circumstances, is there? You want to go, but you can’t, because you’re still chained to your family.”

“I…” What could he do, lie and tell her his family was no long as factor? “I want to go. I don’t want him to be alone. I-I don’t want to be alone.”

“You think if you leave with Adrian, you’ll never be able to see or speak to your brothers again, but that’s just not the case, Deran,” Jess frowned, brows furrowed. “Adrian would never choose to leave if he believed he would never see us again. He would have preferred prison to abandoning us entirely.”

“He tried,” Deran grunted, clearing his throat. “That night, when I told I couldn’t go, he said he wanted to stay, do the time. I scared him into leaving town.”

“You can follow him out if you want to, Deran. He’ll let you. Your brothers will let you. The only thing holding you back is you,” Jess commented with a heavy sigh. “But if you don’t go, if you choose to stay, that has to be it, Deran. You and Adrian have to be done. No phone calls, no emails, no running to find him when your brothers piss you off. Nothing. You’ve been stringing him along for half your lives, you can’t keep doing it forever. H-He can’t take it anymore. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

“Yes.”

* * *

Under normal circumstances, Adrian wouldn’t go over Tommy’s head to handle sensitive matters within his crew, but when the situation involved their nephew, stolen drugs, and Tommy’s girl, he decided his levelheaded approach would be better received than Tommy’s temper and brute force.

“Heard you two had an eventful morning,” Adrian addressed the men without the same accusatory tone he was sure LaKeisha had used with them previously. “Someone want to tell me what happened?”

“Why we gotta answer to you?” Spanky questioned defensively. “This is Tommy’s business, not yours.”

“You’re right,” Adrian was only trying to spare them some grief, he wasn’t trying to be the boss or stage a takeover. “If you want, we can call Tommy, tell him you got into it with his girl.”

“We didn’t touch that bitch.”

“Never said you did,” ‘Keisha hadn’t mentioned things getting physical either, for that matter. “Grim, you want to tell me what happened? ‘Keisha was pretty pissed when she came by the loft.”

“She was in here doing inventory when we got in. Spanky noticed an open box that was missing a couple bottles of pills,” Grim explained, not as bothered by the line of questioning as his friend. “He brought it up to LaKeisha, she started accusing us of being the ones to steal them.”

“She jumped conclusions without evidence to back it up,” Not much of a surprise, Adrian supposed, given the lack of trust between them. “Naturally, things got heated.”

“You know, ever since Tommy started bringing LaKeisha around, gettin’ her into our business, shit has been going left,” Spanky criticized Tommy’s decision to make his girl his business partner as well. “Shit always goes sideways when a bitch gets involved.”

“You know, if Tommy heard you refer to LaKeisha as a bitch, you’d be eatin’ a bullet. Show some respect to the fairer sex, man,” Adrian advised the shorter man. “Look, I know it’s not fair, ‘cause you guys have been with Tommy longer, but he will believe her over you. She tells him you got in her face, it’s gonna get bloody in here.”

“’Cause Tommy’s an emotional motherfucker,” Spanky said with a huff. “No disrespect or anything.”

“The only way to get Tommy to forget about this stuff with LaKeisha is if we give him something else to focus on,” Which went completely against what Adrian had said to LaKeisha about not splitting Tommy’s focus. “Anyone got any ideas?”

“Well, that ain’t gonna be easy, killer,” Spanky muttered, scratching the scruff on his chin. “Nah, on second thought, I think there is a way Tommy will forget about this whole thing: if we smoke Ghost.”

“No,” Shit between Tommy and Jamie was a family problem that would be handled within the family. “No one is touching Ghost.”

“What about Dre?” Grim chimed in. “Spanky saw him at Truth when he and your Cody friends were robbing the place.”

“Dre was at Truth?” That could only mean the son of a bitch was working for Ghost again. “Asshole has more lives than a cat.”

“We should go get him,” Spanky suggested. “Bring him to Tommy.”

“It’s Tommy who takes the shot,” Like Jason had done when Adrian and Tommy had brought him Alicia Jimenez. “You know where he’s going to be?”

“Won’t be hard to track him down,” Grim assured him. “There’s not a lot of places he can go for safe haven.”

“All right. Go get him, but be careful,” Adrian wanted Dre to answer for shit he had done, but he didn’t want it to be at the expense of anyone else. “Call me first when you have him.”

“Why you?”

“Because I'm asking you to.”

* * *

Honestly, when Tommy had invited Deran to meet him on the roof of his apartment building, he expected the kid to bring back up, if he showed up at all. To his surprise, the kid joined him on the roof alone, but Tommy as willing to bet big brother was waiting nearby.

“Nice choice of venues,” Deran whistled, taking in the New York skyline. “Any reason we couldn’t do this in the loft?”

“Relax. The roof ain’t for you,” Tommy had another meeting on the books that required specific surroundings. “What do you think I asked you up here for?”

“I don’t know,” Deran shrugged, taking a cigarette out of the pack in his jacket pocket. “I don’t think it’s to kill me, though.”

“I know my baby brother’s back on your bullshit,” That information came to him in the form of a very descriptive text message from his mother that he really wished he hadn’t read. “And I know he’s got some fun new legal troubles.”

“But you don’t know what they are,” Deran guessed, lighting his smoke. “And you want me to tell you.”

“Yeah, I do,” Tommy couldn’t help his brother if he didn’t know what was going on. “So, what is it now? Blowback from this shit he’s done for the Serbs?”

“No, it’s old shit. It’s my shit,” Deran confessed, hanging his head. “He’s mind’s already made up on how to deal with it.”

“Who benefits most from his plan?” Tommy knew the answer, but confirmation would’ve been nice. “You or him?”

“I tried talking him out of it,” Deran claimed, taking a drag off his cigarette. “He’s being stubborn and making sense. His argument was solid.”

“That doesn’t really tell me shit, you know.”

“I’m sure he’ll tell you everything before he goes home.”

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that, and I don’t think Oceanside’s a good fit for him,” Things had only ever gone to hell for his brother in that shithole. “My place is going to be his home from now on.”

“If Adrian has his way, he won’t be in Oceanside for long, but he’s not going to be here either,” Deran gestured to the cityscape. “And I don’t think there would ever be a scenario where he would willingly move in with you, your girl, and her kid.”

“No, you ain’t hearing me. ‘Keisha, Cash, and me ain’t gonna be there,” They were off to greener pastures, so to speak. “I’m gonna sign the loft over to Adrian. I bought a house out on Long Island for me and ‘Keisha.”

“A house, huh?” Deran raised a brow, smirking around his cigarette. “You know, buying a house isn’t going to fix shit between you.”

“What makes you think there’s something wrong between me and ‘Keisha?”

“You bought her a house.”

“Fuck you.”

“I mean it, man. Whatever bullshit you avoid dealing with or refuse to talk about is still going to be there, a house won’t erase it or make it any easier,” Deran remarked knowingly. “The silences are harder to sit with when there are no more separate corners. You’re gonna be trapped together until you can’t fucking take it anymore and you finally have things out or one of you walks out to cool off, and that shit lands differently once you live together.”

“Don’t project your and Adrian’s bullshit on me and LaKeisha,” Tommy did not appreciate the comparison. “We’re different.”

“Trust me on this, man,” Deran took another puff from his smoke. “It’s not going to be how you want it to be.”

“’Keisha and me ain’t you and my brother, okay?” Tommy knew this because he’d listened to his little sister rant about their relationship in great detail for fucking years. “You and A are low-rent Ghost and Tasha. Jess says you and Ghost are pretty much the same person, only you got much lower ambitions.”

“Your boy Ghost is a fuckin’ asshole,” Deran spat out. “What was that shit with Alphonse at his club? He had the dude executed in the middle of our job.”

“Ghost ain’t my boy,” They were nothing to each other anymore. “I don’t know what the fuck that was. He was probably trying to make Tate look good, heroic and tough on crime to boost his ratings and poll numbers.”

“That doesn’t bother you?” Deran asked. “Your brother’s life was on the line. If Jason had taken the money instead of Adrian, it would have been your nephew’s life he was playing games with.”

“That’s how Ghost is. He exploits every opportunity so he comes out on top, even if it puts his own family at risk,” Tommy didn’t like it, but it wasn’t something he had control over. “And it all turned out fine this time, I mean, for everyone but Alphonse.”

“Uh-huh,” Deran rolled his eyes, flinching when the hinges on roof access door squealed as it swung open. “That the other person you were expecting?”

“Yep,” Tommy nodded as his nephew came into view. “Sup, ‘Riq?”

“What’s up, Uncle T,” Tariq sidled across the roof, barely giving Deran a passing glance to acknowledge his presence. “I was trying to get up with you earlier. I don’t know what happened.”

“Let’s cut all the bullshit,” Tommy wasn’t in the mood to be given the runaround by a teenager. “LaKeisha told me you was the one that stole product from my warehouse. Is that true?”

“What?” Tariq didn’t hesitate or falter, his façade of innocence firmly in place. “What are you talking about?”

“That shit in your room at Choate, you said it was Kanan’s,” Tommy had believed him without a second though, an error on his part it seemed. “Tariq, did you lie to my face?”

“Uncle Tommy, I don’t know nothing about no stolen drugs, all right?” Tariq claimed, shoving his hands into his pants pockets. “How am I even supposed to find your warehouse?”

“When your dad shot up my Mustang, you used your app to get me a ride there,” From there, all he had to do was look up the address. “Tariq, just tell me the goddamn truth, kid.”

“All right, I stole some,” ‘Riq admitted, hunching his shoulders, appearing only somewhat apologetic. “I ran out. Vincent was on my ass, man. I was in some deep shit. I’m sorry. I just didn’t know what else to do.”

“Okay, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Tommy advanced on his nephew, grabbing him by the collar of his jacket and pushing him to the edge of the roof. “After everything I done for you! We all could have died trying to save your ass!”

“Listen, listen! I was desperate, all right!” Tariq struggled against his uncle’s hold. “I didn’t know what to do. That’s why I came up here to apologize to you man. I swear, I won’t do it again.”

“You’re goddamn right about that,” Tommy grunted, hoisting his nephew over the ledge, balancing him precariously on the railing. “You know, I’ve killed motherfuckers for less.”

“Uncle Tommy, what the fuck? Please, man, don’t do this. Please, don’t kill me,” Tariq pleaded with him, hands grasping at Tommy’s jacket for something, anything, to hold onto in his panicked state. “Don’t drop me, please! Please! Uncle Tommy, put me down, man.”

“I, uh, I think I should go get Adrian,” Deran said, slowly backing up toward the door. “I get what you’re doing. I mean, I tried to drown my own nephew just for existing after he moved in with us. But, um, this seems like that kind of thing Adrian would get upset about—“

“Don’t bother,” Tommy pulled his nephew back over the edge, dumping him on the ground. “We’re done here.”

“Oh, fuck,” Tariq panted, trying to catch his breath. “Shit.”

“Did you fucking feel that!” Tommy screamed in the boy’s face. “This is the game! Every fucking moment of your life, if you ain’t pushing, you falling. I didn’t want that for you.”

“I-I’m sorry,” Tariq climbed to his feet, brushing dirt off his clothes. “How can I make this right, Uncle Tommy?”

“You can’t. You’re just as low-down and grimy as your old man,” It killed Tommy to know that Ghost was right about the kid all along. “You lied to me. You stole from me. I can’t trust you. I guess we ain’t family anymore.”

* * *

Jess wouldn’t consider herself to be a meddler, she didn’t involved herself in other people’s business strictly for the sake of doing so. She was, however, a concerned sister with a low threshold for bullshit, cursed with brothers who were completely inept in their romantic entanglements. She didn’t butt into things because she wanted to, no, she had to, they forced her hands, really.

“Hey LaKeisha,” She stepped into the weave shop, greeting the other woman warmly. “You busy?”

“Just restocking and taking inventory,” ‘Keisha replied as she continued to organize items on the shelf. “Why? You come here to try and buy me off too?”

“I just came to talk,” She wasn’t in the business was buying people off, her bank account couldn’t afford it. “I’d ask who tried to pay you off, but it’s not a hard guess.”

“Ghost cornered me in the parking garage earlier. I thought he was there to kill me or something,” ‘Keisha grumbled, a flash of fear crossing her face. “He just handed me a check, told me to take Cash and move to Atlanta or some shit. Said I was never cut out for the drug game, that eventually I would have to choose between Tommy and my son.”

“He’s not entirely wrong—about you having to choose, I mean,” It was a simple choice, the child would always win out, but it was still a hard pill to swallow knowing what it would cost. “With the life Tommy leads, the cops are never going to stop being a threat. They’ll do anything they can to put him away, and that includes using you and your son, leveraging your son against you to get you to flip on Tommy.”

“I ain’t ever gonna rat on Tommy,” ‘Keisha declared, voice heavy with conviction. “You’re wrong about this shit going on forever. We ain’t trying to do this street shit for the rest of our lives. I want a house in the suburbs, away from all this bullshit. I want Cash to grow up in a safe neighborhood. I just want us to live a normal life.”

“You want that,” There was nothing wrong with wanting normalcy, it was a rational and sane thing to hope for. “Tommy will give you that, he’ll give you whatever you want, but he’s never getting out of the life, ‘Keisha. He’s been doing it sense he was a teenager. He doesn’t want out. He likes it too much.”

“So what?” ‘Keisha whipped around to face her, hands thrown in the air. “You’re saying I should have taken the money Ghost offered me?”

“No, I just think you and Tommy should talk about this, get on the same page about things,” They couldn’t very well have a future together when they wanted drastically different things out of it. “You know, this isn’t the first time Ghost has pulled this crap on one of Tommy’s girlfriends. He did it to Holly too. It’s going to mean a lot to Tommy that you didn’t take the money.”

“That’s what happened to Red, huh?” ‘Keisha clucked. “She let that piece of shit pay her off.”

“She took the money and left town, but she came back,” Bitch was like a bad case of herpes. “You want the real story about Holly?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Tommy’s connect at the time had ordered him to kill Ghost, if he didn’t, he and Holly would be killed,” Lobos had proved how serious he was by having on his men slit their dog’s throat and leave the poor thing to bleed out on their kitchen floor. “Tommy tried to do it, but he couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger. Holly went behind his back and hired someone to do the job for him. She was trying to protect Tommy and herself, but Tommy didn’t react well when she told him. No matter how much he and Ghost hate each other, they’re still brothers, and the only person allowed to hurt one of them is the other one.”

“Are you saying Tommy—“

“He blacks out sometimes when he’s angry, and he doesn’t know what he’s doing,” It wasn’t an excuse, Jess couldn’t excuse her brother’s behavior, but it was who he was. “Do not, ‘Keisha, please, do not voluntarily put yourself in the middle of this crap between Tommy and Ghost. They are the only ones who can settle their beef. I know you want to protect Tommy, but you can’t do that if you’re dead, and you can’t raise your kid from a grave either.”

“I hear you,” ‘Keisha sighed. “I just feel useless not doing anything when I know I can help.”

“One thing I’ve learned watching Adrian with Deran all these years is that it’s not easy to be with someone in the life. It’s frustrating and it’s painful to be forced into the backseat until the smoke has cleared,” It was in the aftermath of a job or a fight that Adrian was allowed to step in and do what Deran needed him to do, and Jess knew it had to be the same with Tommy and LaKeisha. “You have to be the one to pick up the pieces and put him back together at the end of that day. That’s your role here. That’s going to be your life with Tommy, year after year, stitching him back together when all this rips him to shreds until he dies or you’ve had enough, whichever comes first.”

* * *

There were obvious issues within Tommy’s crew, conflicting personalities and split loyalties, however, when they had a common goal, they could be incredibly efficient. Take the task of rounding up Dre for example, their hate for him brought them together, and in only a few short hours they had him bound and gagged in the trunk of a stolen car.

“Yo, where Tommy at?” Spanky asked, popping the trunk to show off their prize. “He’s gonna want a piece of this.”

“He’s handling a family problem at the moment,” It was also entirely possible Adrian had neglected to call and update him on this particular matter. “Your friend here have anything to say for himself?”

“Didn’t give him a chance to say nothing when we grabbed him up,” Grim said, leaning into the trunk to remove the gag. “Been hollering and making a lot of noise since we locked him up in here, though.”

“Yo! Yo! Wait, ya’ll the bitches trying to kill me?” Dre spluttered eyeing his captors, gaze falling on Adrian. “Who the fuck is this guy?”

“The poor man’s Tommy Egan,” Spanky answered for him. “Tommy’s baby bro, my dude.”

“We’ve never officially met,” Adrian didn’t feel the need to share his name with the guy now. “I try to stay clear of Kanan’s people, but I’ve seen you around.”

“Hey, man, look, I stopped rolling with that motherfucker before he got lit up by the police—“

“You did as much damage trying to move up in Ghost and Tommy’s organization as you did when you riding Kanan’s coattails,” Adrian wasn’t going to let him off the hook just because he smartened up about Kanan in the eleventh hour. “You remember Julio Romano? Yeah, he was a friend of mine.”

“Yo, man, I didn’t pull the trigger on him,” Dre vehemently denied any involvement in the other man’s death. “T-That was his old crew. Toros Locos or some shit.”

“Julio found out you were working a side hustle with Kanan, and you couldn’t let him tell Tommy, so you enlisted your boy Cristobal to set up a meet with Uriel, the leader of the Toros Locos. You fed him some bullshit about how the deal Ghost made to keep Julio alive after he left the Toros Locos didn’t need to be held up anymore because Ghost was out of the game,” Just as expected, Uriel had bought into all of it and agreed to take out Julio for them. “You waited until Tommy was out of town, then you lured Julio to a warehouse where the Toros Locos were waiting. They beat him to death and carved the Toros Locos ink off his neck.”

“Man, I had nothing to do with that,” Dre shook his head. “T-That was Uriel and Cristobal. They acted alone, bro.”

“Cristobal was more than happy to share the details after you dimed him and Alicia Jimenez out to the feds. All I had to do was get a phone to him on the inside,” That was a hell of a lot easier to do when he had a connection like Jason, who had connections everywhere, including the federal prison system. “He had a lot to say about you, actually. Couldn’t shut his ass up once I got him going.”

“You’re making a big mistake, man. Look, the feds got a tracker on me,” Dre shot out a leg, his pant leg riding up to reveal the monitor strapped to his ankle. “They got me serving up Ghost. I’m playing both sides.”

“Now that I do believe,” That might’ve been the first honest thing Adrian had heard come out of Dre’s mouth yet. “Playing both sides is kind of your thing, isn’t it? If I were you, I wouldn’t be bragging about that.”

“Fucking, exactly,” Spanky nodded. “Don’t believe shit he says, bro.”

“Hold up,” Grim faltered. “Ain’t the enemy of our enemy our friend?”

“Not in this case,” Adrian couldn’t justify calling Dre a friend no matter how many enemies they had in common. “Check him for a wire. Feds are tracking him, let’s make sure they’re not listening to.”

“I got this,” Grim volunteered, leaning into the car once more.

“Hey!” Dre kicked at the bigger man as he began to pat him down. “Get off me, yo! I ain’t got shit.”

“He’s clean, A.”

“I got a phone,” Spanky handed the device over. “Swiped it after we snatched him up.”

“Good lookin’ out, Spank,” Adrian unlocked the screen, finding a notification for a text message waiting to be read.

_ **NEW MESSAGE** _

**GHOST:** _Meeting with Jason is on. Be Ready!_

“I need you guys to get him out of here,” Adrian gestured to Dre as he slipped the phone into his pocket. “It’s a risk having him here while he’s wearing that ankle bracelet.”

“You want us to put him in the ground?” Spanky asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet, excited by the prospect. “What about that fucking monitor?”

“Take him somewhere else, somewhere secure, so Tommy can deal with him,” The whole point of grabbing Dre was to hand him over to Tommy to do with as he pleased. “We can’t just take the ankle monitor off, tampering with it will alert the cops. I don’t know, uh, I guess you can cut off his leg just above it, cauterize the wound, toss the foot, bracelet and all somewhere else. With any luck the shock won’t kill him, so Tommy can.”

“Wait, what?” Dre blanched, paling. “Hell nah, man. What the fuck?”

“You’re supposed to be the nice one,” Grim quipped halfheartedly to break the tension that settled over the room. “You’ve spent too much time with your brother, man.”

“If either of you have a better idea, then go for it,” Adrian trusted their judgment more than his own when it came to that sort of thing. “Just get him and that tracker the fuck out of here, please.”

“Man, what the fuck? I don’t even know you!” Dre wiggled around in the trunk, trying to loosen his bonds. “All this bullshit over Julio?”

“All this bullshit over my niece Raina,” As much as Adrian cared for Julio and wanted justice for what happened to him, Raina’s murder was the catalyst. “You gave Kanan access to Tariq, let him worm his way in and poison him. Kanan got ‘Riq mixed up in his business with Ray Ray and Jukebox. Ray Ray was looking for Tariq when he shot Raina outside her school dance.”

“And Ray Ray paid for that shit, man,” Dre argued, face pinched in irritation. “I-I’m the one who told ‘Riq where to find him.”

“And turned my nephew into a murderer,” If he had kept his mouth shut, told Ghost or Tommy instead, there wouldn’t be the blood of a dirty cop soaking Tariq’s hands. “There are rules to this shit, you know. Kids are supposed to be off limits. If you had just left ‘Riq alone, told Kanan to fuck off when he came to you, then Raina would still be alive, and Tariq wouldn’t be who he is right now.”

“You don’t just tell someone like Kanan no!” Dre shouted. “He wanted payback for Shawn, man. Shawn chose Ghost over him. Ghost took his son, so Kanan was going to take Ghost’s son.”

“Shawn was an adult not a child,” Shawn had been young, yeah, but old enough to decide for himself who he wanted to emulate, his father or Ghost. Tariq was just a boy vulnerable to influence when Kanan sunk his teeth into him. “Kanan had no right to use Tariq, and neither did you. Kanan’s already paid for his sins, and now Tommy’s going to make you pay for yours.”

* * *

If there was anyone in the family Deran was close to, it was Craig. Craig had raised him, for whatever that was worth. Craig was always the one who tried to make him feel okay with who he was, and tried to make him believe the family wouldn’t give a damn. Still, it was hard to trust Craig when he was so weak.

Craig was too reliant on family, girls, and drugs. He needed coke and oxy just to get him through the day, to kick start his body and numb his mind. The girls that flocked to him provided a decent substitute for the love and affection he never got at home. The family, Deran usually, was there to peel him off the floor when the first two knocked him on his ass. Deran had picked Craig up too many times, let him become so reliant on him that when he finally had the chance to break away, to live the life he wanted, Craig couldn’t let him go.

“So,” He spoke into the cellphone. “How’s the kid?”

“_He’s good. Getting bigger every day, man. You should see him.”_

“I will,” After everything that had transpired over the last few weeks, hell, the last few days, returning to Oceanside wasn’t something Deran was looking forward to, but it was unavoidable. “Look, uh, Craig, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“_About this shit with Pearce?”_

“Yeah, kind of,” Decisions had been made; plans were being set in motion. “It’s gonna be taken care of. Um, Pope and me, we’re letting Adrian do things his way.”

“_Should I ask how?”_

“No. It’s not something you need to worry about,” It wasn’t the kind of thing Deran was willing to discuss in length over the phone. “Just stand down, okay? Don’t try to shut Dave up or whatever. That’s part of the deal, we leave him alone.”

“_Yeah, okay, if that’s how you and Pope want to play things.”_

“So, uh, this plan of Adrian’s, it ends the same as the last one was supposed to,” With a long, permanent trip to some place that didn’t have an extradition treaty with the US. “I’m, um, I’m going with him this time, Craig. For real. And I-I need you to let me go.”

“_Deran…”_

“Please,” He would go whether his brother gave him his blessing or not, he just didn’t want to leave things on a bad note. “I need you to be cool with this. You can’t get all fucking teary and beg me to stay.”

“_Fuck you.”_

“Come on, Craig.”

“_For how long? Just to get him set up?”_

“For good,” He wouldn’t lie and pretend it was a temporary situation this time, his brothers deserved a measure of honesty. “I’m not going to just disappear. We’ll find a way to keep in touch, burner phones and shit. When we want to see each other, we can all go way the fuck out of our ways to places far from where we live so the feds can’t try to track us back to anywhere specific. We’ll even meet in different locations each time.”

“_Why can’t you just stay here and do that meet up shit with Adrian once in a while?”_

“Fucking Christ, Craig, really?” That was exactly the kind of crap Deran did not want to deal with. “So, what, you get the girl and the kid, Pope gets his Julia replacement, J gets to be king shit and take everything that was Smurf’s, and I get nothing?”

“_You have the bar and your house—“_

“I bought the house for me and Adrian,” He wouldn’t live there without him, it was hard enough stepping inside it on his own after he’d sent Adrian away. “The bar…the bar was supposed to be my way out, but even that turned out to be a place to wash our money. It’s not a way out, it’s a cement block chained to my ankle.”

“_Don’t be so fucking dramatic, Deran.”_

“Don’t be a selfish bitch, Craig,” Although, his brother’s attitude was certainly making Deran feel better about leaving, if that’s how they were going to treat him, he had no reason to fucking stay. “This is happening whether you want it to or not.”

“_It’s bullshit. Just ‘cause Adrian got himself into trouble again…”_

“This isn’t his fault, not this time. It’s on me,” It was Deran’s mistake made out of jealously and anger. “I did this. I sent Pope after Dave. Adrian’s taking this hit for me and Pope. Okay?”

“_So this is about guilt? That’s why you’re going with him?”_

“I’m going because I… I-I love him,” Guilt would push him away from Adrian, it was love that kept him close. “Do you have any idea how long Adrian and me have been trying to find the right time to finally…. We held back for so long, too long, because I was fucking scared of Smurf and what people would think. I fucked it up a hundred times, Craig. And when we finally managed to get it together, he got popped and Smurf decided he was a threat…”

“_Maybe the universe is trying to tell you something, like you shouldn’t be together. You’re not right for each other. You should be with your family.”_

“Says the guy who robbed his girl while she was OD’ing on the floor, who is only with her now because he knocked her up,” Deran and Adrian had a lifetime of history between them, they’d worked for years for what they had, they didn’t just fall into it accidently because of cocaine and a broken condom. “I like Renn, I like you guys together, but the two of you together is not a relationship, it’s just fun. That’s all it is for you, Craig, it’s fun. The baby doesn’t change that. You guys aren’t a couple, she was your friend – I say that loosely – and the dealer you screwed for a discount on blow.”

“_Fuck you, Deran.”_

“You’re not a family, you never have been and you never will be, and that’s why you need me. You know it’s never going to work out with her, so you need me to stay and take care of you when she finally smartens up and drop you like the bad habit you are. I’m not gonna fucking do it, Craig,” Deran had given up too much in the name of his family and gotten fuck-all in return, and he was sick of it. “I just hope that when Renn goes, she takes the baby with her, ‘cause that’s the only way that kid has a chance in hell of not turning out like you.”

“_Go to hell! Actually, no, don’t. Go with Adrian. You two deserve each other.”_

“I am going with Adrian,” He felt a hell of a lot more certain about that now than we he had picked up the phone to call his brother in the first place. “And I am never coming home.”

“_Good. Don’t. We don’t fucking need you here anyway.”_

“Didn’t think you did.”

* * *

Adrian wasn’t the impulsive type by nature, he liked to think things through before he did them, more so as he got older and had a better understanding of the consequences of his actions. However, like this brother, his emotions sometimes got the better of him and he would just react without a thought or care in the world to rear its ugly head and stop him. Those kinds of emotions are what led him to Jason’s office, crashing his meeting in Dre’s place.

“_Not only will you not see an interruption in business, you’ll have growth under new management,”_ Ghost played up Dre for Jason’s benefit. _“That’s what you want after all, right? Look, trust me, I’ve worked with this guy once before.”_

“_Okay, I’ll look into it,”_ Jason bought into every goddamn piece of bullshit Ghost was selling him, and why shouldn’t he, Ghost was an excellent salesman. _“We can discuss—“_

“I think we should discuss Ghost trying to dump a federal witness in your lap,” Adrian pushed past Jason’s henchman into the office. “Dre, right? The guy with a tracking monitor attached to his ankle courtesy of the US Attorney’s office? The same dude who ratted on the Jimenez cartel because Alicia passed him over for promotion? That’s your trustworthy new management?”

“Is that right?” Jason raised a brow, leveling Ghost with a look that suggested he better start explaining himself, and fast. “You want out of this so badly you would choose to a rat as your successor? Or are you working for the feds too? Are you trying to sell me out to them?”

“No! No, of course not,” Ghost denied the accusation, throwing a sharp glare Adrian’s way. “What the fuck, A? What’d you know about Dre? What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Dre and I had a nice chat and he left his phone behind,” Adrian tossed the cellphone to the other man. “Imagine my surprise to see a text message from you inviting him to a meeting with _**Tommy’s **_connect.”

“This is a private meeting regarding Ghost and his future with my organization,” Jason said calmly. “It had nothing to do with Tommy or you, Adrian.”

“A few days ago, you were at Truth trying to convince Ghost to kill Tommy and take over his business, now you’re meeting with him in secret to put things under new management,” Was Adrian just supposed to believe the two events weren’t related? “What the hell, Jason? Tommy turned a million dollars worth of product for you in a day, and you’re just going to get rid of him?”

“I made the arrangement with Ghost to keep your brother alive, Adrian. You’re welcome,” Jason rounded on Adrian, an air of authority surrounding him. “I know I’ve been lenient with you, perhaps too lenient, but you should know better than to come in here barking about what you think you know.”

“What I think I know?” Fuck that noise, Adrian knew exactly what was going on. “You think Ghost can earn more for you than Tommy. You want him to kill Tommy, but on your terms, and then take over his crew and his territory. Ghost doesn’t want the job, not this week anyway, so he’s trying to shuck Dre off on you. Dre’s a lazy asshole, doesn’t want to work to move up the ranks, he just kills anyone who works above him to take their place.”

“Fuck, man,” Ghost groaned, clenching his eyes shut. “We tell you way too much.”

“Dre, even without the ankle monitor, isn’t someone you want in your organization, ‘cause like Ghost here, as soon as you start to trust him, he’ll put a knife in your back and snake your business out from under you,” Adrian was probably going to pay for making that comparison later, but even Ghost couldn’t call it a lie. “And, yeah, Tommy’s problems have a habit of following him, but he always gets the job done and is loyal to the people who are loyal to him.”

“You don’t believe in loyalty,” Jason pointed out. “Yours didn’t do you any favors.”

“You believe in it, Tommy believes in it,” That should have been enough, what Adrian did or did not believe in was irrelevant. “Tommy has been loyal to you since day one. He’s earned more for you than any of his previous connects. Now you’re going to kill him, trade him in for someone who will half-ass it every step of the way because he doesn’t even want the job.”

“No one is killing anybody. There is far more profit to be made in peacetime than in war,” Jason acknowledged pragmatically. “Ghost, I think it’s time you and Tommy kiss and make up, because from now on, you’ll be running my weight with each other. _**Together**_.”

“Jason, no,” Ghost shook his head. “I told you. I’m out the game, man.”

“T-That’s not where I was going with this at all,” Truth be told, Adrian hadn’t exactly walked in with a game plan, which was probably his first mistake. “Tommy will never agree to that. He won’t work with Ghost again.”

“You are the one who said they only made it this far in the business because they were working together,” Jason reminded him, a smirk playing on his lips. “And since you have such strong opinions on how I go about my business with your brothers, you are going to be the one to ensure that things run smoothly and everyone gets along nicely.”

“No, ‘cause I’m out of the game too, remember?” Plus, playing the go-between for Tommy and Ghost sounded far more daunting than anything else Jason had tasked him to do. “We agreed to that because of the other stuff I have going on, it would be a risk to keep me in your organization.”

“We will conclude our business together when you report to jail or leave the country. Until that time, you still have a job to do,” Jason changed the terms of Adrian’s employment, not for the first time. “As of today, that job is to keep Tommy and Ghost from killing each other. Either one of them shows up dead, I will kill the other one and then I will kill you. Got it?”

“Um, yeah,” Adrian gulped. “I got it.”

“And if Tommy or I just say no?” Ghost interjected. “Huh? What then?”

“You are both paying me a significant amount of money for transgressions you’ve committed and protection. Because I’m such a nice guy, if you work with each other under me, I will cut that tax for the both of you,” Jason offered some incentive, making it all seem like a choice rather than an order. “Or don’t, then I will double both of your payments.”

“Fuck,” Ghost exclaimed, grabbing Adrian by the scruff of his neck. “You, me, and Tommy are in for a long fucking talk.”

“Awesome.”

* * *

Growing up, Jess used to make the trip to New York at least every couple of months during school breaks and major holidays. As an adult, it was harder to carve out the time around work, and since Charlie was born, the trips had dipped to once a year, if at all. These days, when she did find a few spare days to make the trip, she made sure to make the rounds to say goodbye and tie up loose ends, because with the way their family lived, there was always a chance it might be the last time she would see them alive.

“I think this is the longest you’ve stayed since this one was born,” Tasha mentioned, rocking the sleeping toddler in her arms. “Bet you’re happy to be going home, though.”

“I am, for her,” Jess reached out to caress her daughter’s hair. “Me, though, I don’t know. Feels like there’s too much unfinished here.”

“It’s always unfinished here. Nothing ever settles,” Tasha sighed, adjusting the blanket wrapped around her niece. “Get out while your hands are still clean. If it’s your brothers making you hesitate, I get it, they got the stupid shit gene in spades. As soon as they get out of one thing, they get themselves into something else. You got every right to be worried, but you can’t stop them, no matter where you are.”

“Worrying about my brothers is a stress I’ve spent my entire life coping with,” It was always there in the back of her head and the pit of her stomach, and it wasn’t something she could shake. “Worrying about Tariq all wrapped up in this life is new for me.”

“Yeah, you’re telling me,” Tasha took in a shaky breath. “Ghost pulled a gun on him this morning, was trying to scare him into give up the life or some shit.”

“Yeah, Pope said ‘Riq went by the loft looking for Tommy to tell him about it,” That was how things went for the kid, if daddy pissed him off, he went running straight to his favorite uncle. “I, uh, I heard Tommy made a run at him to, dangled him off the roof of his apartment building to prove a point or something.”

“He stole drugs from Tommy’s warehouse,” Tasha added context to confrontation. “Tariq was afraid ‘Keisha would tell Tommy about it. I thought Tommy would kill him if she did.”

“Guess that’s why Jamie tried to pay ‘Keisha off,” As if Jamie needed a reason to do anything of the sort. “You know, Tommy would never hurt Tariq for any reason. He loves that kid too much.”

“Tommy murdered his own child, remember?” Tasha gripped Charlie tighter in her arms. “Holly was pregnant when he killed her.”

“That’s not fair. He didn’t know,” As far as Jess knew, Holly had kept her pregnancy a secret from all but one person. “He didn’t know until months later when _**you**_ told him.”

“I thought he knew.”

“I know. I know you did,” It was a tragic set of circumstances that Jess didn’t like to think about. “I don’t want to... – You know, what, let’s just talk about Tariq. What are you going to do about him? Tommy and Jamie, their scare tactics aren’t going to work, it’s just going to backfire and push ‘Riq deeper into everything you want him out of.”

“I’m not as blind as they are. They think ‘Riq can change, go back to being a normal kid, but I know better. This is just how he is, it’s who he is,” Tasha murmured sullenly. “Nothing we say is going to convince him to stop, and if he’s not going to stop, he’s gotta learn the game or he’s going to get himself killed.”

“If he’s trying to move up the ladder, yeah. I mean, selling adderall to rich kids at his fancy private school is nothing compared to what Tommy and Ghost do,” Dealing to classmates was lowball shit teenagers did sometimes for extra cash, it wasn’t always a gateway to long career in the life. “Tariq tries to hit the streets slinging dope, he’s just gonna get rolled by a corner boy who actually knows what the hell they’re doing. It only takes one look at ‘Riq to know he’d a sheltered, wealthy kid completely out of his element.”

“He’ll try to play the tough guy to the wrong person and get himself killed, and I won’t lose another child,” Tasha gazed at the toddler in her arms, grief clouding her features. “I’m not going to let him get killed because he doesn’t know how to do it right. He doesn’t know the streets, but I do.”

“There’s not really a choice, is there? He’s gonna do whatever he wants to do,” Jess loved her nephew, she really did, but his stubbornness rivaled that of even his father. “Can’t change his mind or send him away. Scaring him straight hasn’t worked. Maybe all you can do is teach him what he needs to learn to keep him alive.”

“I’m gonna teach him the game.”

“Jamie’s never going to get on board with that,” Jamie was still trying to live the childhood he should have had through his son. “But he pulls all kinds of shit behind your back that’s affected the family. And if it’s all you can do to protect your son then you gotta do it.”

“Tariq doesn’t think any of us have his back, so he’s hustling us, lying. That shit with Vincent, his kidnapping, I think that was a hustle. Tariq was supposed to get a cut of the ransom money,” Tasha proposed a grim theory about her son. “He keeps bringing up Kanan, saying Kanan’s the only one who ever had his back, that’s why he trusted him.”

“Fuck Kanan,” Even from the grave that piece of shit was finding new ways to screw with their family. “If Tariq needs someone to have his back, then you gotta be that for him, not some ghost of Christmas Fuck You, you know.”

“He’ll learn to trust me, ‘cause there’s gonna be rules to this shit if I’m teaching him the game,” Tasha pursed her lips. “He’s going to keep going to school, he’s gonna go to college, and he’s going to keep pushing weight, ‘cause that’s who he is. He’s gonna commit to both the legit life and the streets.”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky and as soon as you get behind him being in the drug game it’ll lose its appeal to him,” It was wishful thinking, but a girl could dream. “You know like when your parents tell you to stop seeing a guy ‘cause they don’t like them, but you don’t, and eventually your parents come around, and suddenly…”

“Suddenly dude’s ugly inside and out, and you can’t remember what the fuck you saw in the dumb motherfucker to begin with.”

“Exactly.”

“I mean, I hope it goes that way, but I don’t know,” Tasha mumbled, caressing the toddler’s cheek. “There’s too much Ghost in him, you know. Even when he says he wants out, he’ll find a way to stay in.”

“Yeah.”

“Hey, uh,” Tasha cleared her throat. “If things pop off here with Tariq or with Ghost and Tommy, I might need to send ‘Riq and Yaz on vacation until things get sorted.”

“I’ve got room for them, anytime,” That was always her role in the family since the kids were born, to take them in and keep them safe if things went bad and they needed somewhere to go. “Just give me the word.”

“Thank you.”

“I’ve got room for you too,” Jess would squeeze her whole family into her house if it got them out of the life. “Don’t let this shit ruin you, Tash.”

“It might be a little late for that.”

“It’s not.”

* * *

Tommy didn’t like being summoned anywhere, for any reason, by anyone, especially not by Ghost. That being said, certain exceptions could be made, usually—okay, only—when family was involved. More often than not, their family issues revolved around the St. Patrick side of their brood, but lately the Dolan side, Adrian specifically, was making a valiant effort to take the top spot in the Fuck Up Olympics.

Adrian, God love the kid, was prone to making decisions he thought were great ideas that in reality were only leading the kid further into a world he wasn’t built for. In a lot of ways, Adrian was the most like their mom, mostly harmless but with the potential to be as destructive as a hurricane making landfall in heavily populated area. Ghost wasn’t so blind he couldn’t see the road Adrian was headed down, and that was probably part of the reason he’d called Tommy down to Truth for a meet.

“All right, what’s going on?” Tommy asked as he made his way through the club to the bar. “What’d little brother do now?”

“I’m just sitting here having a drink,” Adrian swished the amber liquid in the crystal tumbler. “Why do you assume I did something?”

“Aside from the text Ghost sent me saying we need to put a leash on you?” As if every other goddamn thing the kid had been up to the last few months wasn’t enough for him to be suspicious. “Don’t act all innocent, baby brother. I know you’re hiding something.”

“Yeah,” Adrian nodded. “That’s usually a safe bet with me.”

“Don’t be a smart ass,” Ghost clipped the kid upside the head. “We know you’ve got some serious shit going on.”

“Some shit you ain’t even telling us about,” Tommy was not keen on being kept in the dark. “I don’t like it.”

“I don’t care,” Adrian snorted, shaking his head. “I don’t have to tell everyone everything. I’m allowed to keep things to myself.”

“Not when it involves us,” Ghost pounded his fist top of the bar. “You keep making runs at Jason like you did today, you’re gonna get us all killed.”

“And here I thought ordering Spanky and Grim to kidnap Dre and cut off his foot was the stupidest thing you’d done all day,” Tommy was still processing that information. “What, you didn’t think I’d find out about that? They’ve been blowing up my phone since you ordered them to chop Dre off at the ankle.”

“I did not order, I suggested, because of the ankle monitor,” Adrian corrected him while trying to justify his decision. “And they were always supposed to tell you about it. I mean, he was a gift for you, to soothe ruffled feathers from their squabble with ‘Keisha this morning.”

“You ordered someone to cut off a man’s foot?” Ghost gaped, eyes widening. “What the – Did they do it?”

“I _**suggested**_ it.”

“They didn’t get a chance to do it. Spanky fucked off to find a place to offload the body,” Gotten a little ahead of himself, in Tommy’s opinion, seeing as the body still had the breath of life in it. “While he was gone, Dre got a hold of Grim’s gun, got a shut off, and got the hell out of there.”

“Shit,” Adrian startled, tensing with worry. “Is Grim okay?”

“Just a graze across the side of his head,” It could have been a hell of a lot worse considering it was meant to be a kill shot. “He could have died, A. You are Grim are tight. How would you have felt if his brains ended up scattered across the wall, huh?”

“How do you think I would’ve felt?” Adrian countered indignantly. “Grim and Spanky aren’t green. I wouldn’t have asked them to do it if I thought they couldn’t handle it. I’m sorry. I-I’ll talk to him – to them. I’ll apologize, see if they’re okay.”

“Just don’t task my guys to do anything else without talking to me first,” If his brother were anyone else, Tommy wouldn’t be tolerating that kind of behavior. “Now what’s this about you making a run at Jason?”

“I’ll take this one,” Ghost tagged himself in. “Baby brother here crashed my meeting with Jason—“

“Don’t you mean Dre’s meeting with Jason?” Adrian raised a brow. “As if you meeting up with Tommy’s connect wasn’t sketchy enough, you had to throw the career snitch in the mix too.”

“Kid’s got a point,” Tommy was curious to know what Ghost possibly could have been doing with his connect. “I thought you was out the game.”

“Jason doesn’t really see it that way,” Ghost said irritably. “He won’t let me out until I’ve got a replacement. That’s what Dre was for.”

“You were gonna put a rat in my organization?” Tommy had half a mind to pull the gun tucked into the waistband of his jeans. “You going over my head to try to bring me down?”

“Tommy, I don’t give a fuck about you,” Ghost rolled his eyes. “I just want out from under Jason, and you should too. He’s using us both, bleeding us dry with these taxes and penalties. He’s abusing his power. I’m sick of it.”

“Abusing his power?” Adrian snickered, scratching the side of his head. “He’s a drug kingpin and a high ranking member of the Serbian mafia. I don’t think he’s even close to abusing his power. All he’s doing is capitalizing on all the bullshit you two pull that interferes with his business.”

“Well, look at this shit,” Tommy snorted. “Baby bro’s in the game five minutes and thinks he knows a little something about something.”

“From the way Jason was talking, Adrian’s new legal trouble got him out of Jason’s organization yesterday,” Ghost spoke directly to Tommy, pretending for a moment that they were alone in the club. “Today, he came in, started bitching about Dre being a rat, and talked himself back into Jason’s organization as our goddamn babysitter.”

“It’s not really that simple,” Adrian squirmed on the barstool. “And it’s only temporary.”

“Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. What’s this ‘our’ shit?” Tommy’s shit with Ghost was supposed to be done and over with, he was sick of being tied to the motherfucker. “We’re not doing shit together. We ain’t nothing to each other anymore. We ain’t family and we ain’t partners. Nothing, Ghost. You hear me?”

“Jason wants you to bury the hatchet and work together, because your feud is affecting his business. He tasked me with playing referee,” Adrian muttered bitterly, taking a long swig of his drink. “The rules are pretty easy to follow: one of you kills the other, we’re all dead. So, uh, try to keep your guns holstered.”

“You know what I’m wondering? Hmm? How is it we managed to keep you out of our business for, what, twenty-six years of your goddamn life, but now you’re all up in it?” Okay, yeah, maybe there was more Tommy could have done to keep his brother on the straight and narrow, but there was nothing he could do about that now. “Drug trafficking, territory grabs for the mafia. Fuck. Every time I turn the fuck around, you gettin’ in deeper and deeper with my connect. What the fuck, man?”

“I’m both a late bloomer and an overachiever,” Adrian said with a shrug. “What can I tell ya?”

“What you are is a pain in the ass,” Ghost commented, rubbing his temples. “A-And what is the new legal trouble? What the fuck is going with you now?”

“I’d like to know that to,” Tommy crossed his arms over his chest, waiting expectantly for his brother to fess up to whatever it is he’d gotten himself into. “Your boy said you had it all figured out. Want to fill us in?”

“Not really,” Adrian coughed, clearing his throat as he pulled his jacket tighter around himself. “But, uh, a couple years ago, when you had that Lobos problem, did you guys really break him out of police custody or was that just something you told me because you thought it made you look cool?”

“Say what?” Tommy balked. “When have I ever lied to make myself look cool?”

“When I was a kid, to explain why you’d come home covered in glitter, you told me your job was to ‘control’ the unicorn population,” Adrian didn’t hesitate to reach into his memory to pull something out and throw it in Tommy’s face, the little prick. “You said it was a dirty job, but if you didn’t do it, the unicorns would eat all the puppies and kittens in the neighborhood.”

“Yeah, that lie worked out great until you started beheading Jess’s_ My Little Pony _toys,” Ghost chortled with an amused grin. “I don’t even think those were unicorns, man.”

“What was I supposed to do, tell you I was railing a stripper whose stage name was Tinker Bell?” Tommy wasn’t the most mature of men, but even he knew that wasn’t suitable for a child’s ears. “The unicorn thing seemed more age appropriate.”

“I was four years old,” Adrian huffed. “I was afraid of horses of all kinds till I was…-- Fuck. I don’t know. I might still be. I try to avoid all types of horse-like animals if I can help it.”

“Scared of ponies, scared of Santa,” Tommy sometimes forgot what a nervous little kid his brother had been. “Two things most kids fucking love, but not you, you pussy.”

“Shut up,” Adrian said with a whine. “Did you break Lobos out of police custody or what?”

“We got him out during transport,” Ghost answered. “Why? What’s it to you?”

“I’ll let you know if it gets to that point,” Adrian said as he slid off the barstool. “So, I’m gonna head out, check on Grim, and then go back to the loft. We’re all settled here with the Jason stuff, yeah?”

“Yeah. Yeah, we know what we gotta do,” Ghost locked eyes with Tommy over their brother’s shoulder. “I’ll reach out with a location. Tommy, I need you to plant a weapon. I’ll draw Jason to the location. I’ll pull the trigger.”

“Okay,” Tommy nodded. “Can I trust you?”

“Yeah, until Jason's dead. And I can trust you too.”

“Jason puts a moratorium on the two of you murdering each other, so your plan is to kill him?” Adrian’s gaze flickered between his brothers. “You’re putting a pin in your feud to team up to kill him so you can get back to killing each other?”

“Yeah,” Tommy confirmed. “Then it’s back to business.”

“Right,” Adrian chuckled mirthlessly. “Yeah. No. That’s…that’s exactly what I expect from you guys.”

* * *

Pearce had known quite a few dirty cops in his time, ones who took bribes and payoffs, beat confessions out of suspects, and used their badges to get whatever they wanted. He took pride in being different, following the letter of the law. That wasn’t to say he was a stickler for the rules, he knew how to bend and manipulate them when he needed to, but he was careful never to cross the line. He never bended the rules more than when he was on the trail of the Codys.

The Codys had gotten away with dozens of crimes over the years, from robberies to murder, rarely, if ever, seeing the inside of an interrogation room or answering for their sins. Maybe Pearce pushed the bounds more than usual in his efforts to finally see the family behind bars, but it was necessary to get the job done, and if that meant using the people closest to them to secure the information he needed, then so be it.

“Jacob Warner?” He stepped into the US Attorney’s office without an invitation or even a scheduled meeting on the books. “Detective Pearce, California State Police. We spoke on the phone the day before yesterday about Adrian Dolan and his half-brother Thomas Egan.”

“Pearce, right,” Warner didn’t spare him the courtesy of glancing up from his paperwork. “As I recall, I told you to wait for my call while I looked into the matter. I did not tell you to fly out here to interrupt my day.”

“You requested more files than I originally sent you. I decided to make the trip so we could discuss whatever you found in person,” It wasn’t exactly a sanctioned by his superiors, but he had vacation days in the bank and nothing else going on at home. “I’ve been waiting a long time to nail the Codys, and I’m aware that your office has been trying to get a conviction against Thomas Egan the last few years. Adrian Dolan is the weak link; if we work him together I think he can give us what we need to put the Codys or Egan in prison where they belong.”

“We’ll see about that,” Warner set the file he’d been making notes in aside and took another off a large stack on the corner of his desk. “You sold your case well enough to intrigue me, that’s why I pulled more files and transcripts regarding Dolan and the Cody family. You put a lot of time and energy into these Codys over the last two decades. You even had the matriarch, Janine “Smurf” Cody, in custody on murder charges last year.”

“Unfortunately, the evidence didn’t support the charges,” He hadn’t figured Smurf for the trigger-man anyway, it was a task the fell far beneath her stature. “We had to release her.”

“And what about the counterfeit passports in her possession when she was arrested? Did you run the names to see if anything popped?” Warner asked, skimming over the information in the file. “Janine Cody owned a number of apartment building. Did you run the aliases against the list of tenants? She could have been using the buildings to clean her money, if she was what you say she was.”

“I had her on a murder charge,” At the time of the investigation, it seemed open and shut, and aside from a gut feeling, there was no reason to think Smurf wouldn’t be spending the rest of her days in prison. “The passports weren’t a priority.”

“Except you didn’t have the murder charge,” Warner pointed out. “She was proven innocent and the charges were dropped.”

“Mistakes were made.”

“And that was with your own case,” Warner noted, a disapproving lit to his tone. “Now tell me about the mistakes you made after bullying your way onto a DEA investigation involving Thomas Egan’s half-brother, Adrian Dolan.”

“I was investigating the murder of Benito Oxcama,” A murder that would remain unsolved unless he could convince someone to come forward with information about the case. “My original suspect, Colby Bennett, coughed up Deran Cody’s name. I didn’t have enough for a warrant, so I decided to question Deran’s boyfriend, Adrian.”

“According to your file, this Colby Bennett had close ties to your victim. In fact, he was the last person to see your victim alive, and no one could confirm his alibi for the approximated time of death,” Warner reviewed the notations made in the file regarding the case. “Yet, as soon as he threw Deran Cody’s name at you, you had him released and he promptly disappeared without a trace.”

“I believe Deran Cody may have had a hand in his disappearance,” He couldn’t prove it, but the timing was too suspicious to be coincidental. “I’m looking into that as well.”

“Or he could have given you Deran Cody’s name to throw suspicion off himself and then taken the opportunity to flee to avoid prosecution,” Warner posed an alternate scenario. “What is the connection between Benito Oxcama, Colby Bennett, and Deran Cody?”

“They were all in juvenile hall together.”

“Juvenile hall?” Warner scoffed. “Well, unless Thomas Egan’s half-brother is robbing the cradle, so to speak, juvenile hall would have been some time ago for Mr. Cody.”

“A decade, give or take a year or so.”

“Tell me, Mr. Pearce—“

“_**Detective**_ Pearce.”

“I’ll refer to you as a detective when you start acting like one,” Warner said curtly. “Tell me, _**Mr.**_ Pearce, are you treating every delinquent who happened to be in juvenile detention with Mr. Oxcama as a suspect or is Mr. Cody special?”

“There are circumstances,” He hadn’t just pulled the name out of thin air. “Deran and his family are violent, lifelong criminals.”

“Deran Cody was last picked up over five-years ago for car theft, Craig Cody for a drunk and disorderly a year and a half ago, and, uh, my personal favorite, Andrew Cody, arrested for bank robbery after tripping over a trash can while trying to flee the scene,” Warner chuckled, reading the charges listed against the men. “Criminal? Yes. Violent? That’s debatable. They certainly don’t appear to be the masterminds you made them out to be to secure Agent Livengood’s cooperation.”

“They’re good,” They only mastermind in the family kept a tight ship, made sure her boys knew exactly how she wanted things done to avoid a police presence. “They’re smart. They don’t get caught.”

“Deran Cody was _**caught**_ driving around in a stolen car hours after the initial theft. Andrew Cody was _**caught**_ during the commission of a crime, because he couldn’t keep himself on his feet. Craig Cody was _**caught **_when he crashed his motorcycle on the beach and passed out in the sand,” Warner countered Pearce’s claim with the facts presented in the family’s history. “Lifelong criminals, as you call them, should know when to dump a car, how to stay on their feet, and not to drive while intoxicated.”

“I never said they didn’t make mistakes, they do,” No one was perfect, after all. “They even leave witnesses behind, but they’re all too scared to come forward.”

“That couldn’t have anything to do with the leaks in your department, could it?”

“Excuse me?”

“I think you’re the West Coast Saxe.”

“I don’t know what the means.”

“Cooper Saxe is a member of my task force—not my choice. He’s been with this office since before I took over, trying to build a case against Thomas Egan and James St. Patrick,” Warner explained. “Every witness he’s had, except one so far, has been murdered or gone missing under mysterious circumstances, because Saxe has leaked their names to Egan or St. Patrick, so he could catch them in the act of trying to eliminate the witnesses against them.”

“That’s a risky plan,” A plan plenty of cops used to spook a reluctant witness into testifying in exchange for protection. “That’s not me. I don’t do things like that.”

“There have been a number of witnesses questioned about the Codys over the years, and surprise, surprise, they all just happen to disappear, regardless of whether they cooperate or not,” Warner tapped his finger over the list of names. “Witnesses like Mrs. Catherine Ortiz Blackwell.”

“That wasn’t my case and she wasn’t my witness.”

“Maybe not, but I’m willing to bet someone gave her name to the Codys,” Warner said confidently. “I’d also bet that same person gave Mr. Dolan’s name to the family. Ask me how I know.”

“How?”

“Your systems are outdated and their files were left unsecured, anyone in your department could access them and someone did,” Warner glowered. “Adrian Dolan was a federal witness and you put his name in an easily accessible file, listed as a cooperating witness without specifying who he was cooperating with or what it was regarding. If one of your counterparts in the department had seen that and relayed that information to the Codys or someone else, you would have put more than his life at risk. If, for whatever reason, the DEA needed him to testify in court, your fuck up could have blown up their entire case, months of work down the drain because of your incompetence.”

“It was a risk I was willing to take,” The Dolan kid was the weak link, he was sure of it, he just hadn’t had the right button to push at the time. “He would have given me the Codys eventually—he still will.”

“Did you happen to read Mr. Dolan’s juvenile file?”

“I’ve been over his record.”

“No, no, not his arrest record, the transcripts from previous interrogations from all the other times no-brained detectives pulled him into press him about the Codys, St. Patricks, or his brother,” Warner clarified. “I did. I poured over it all last night. Do you know what he had to say each and every time?”

“That he didn’t know anything.”

“That he didn’t know anything.”

“He’s lying.”

“He’s the younger brother of one of the biggest drug distributers in New York City, of course he was lying. He was trained, probably since birth, to keep his mouth shut,” Warner retorted, shaking his head. “Refusing to give up information about the Codys to you or any other member of law enforcement is probably more of a kneejerk reaction than it is about loyalty. He doesn’t even have to think about it, it just happens.”

“He was willing to roll on the dealers he was working for.”

“Interesting, isn’t it, how a kid like him, with a family like his would roll so easily,” Warner hummed. “Years of conditioning to keep him quiet, and it only took a long weekend at county and few hours in an interrogation room with Agent Livengood for him to spill everything about his bosses.”

“He was scared, looking at hard time,” The prospect of spending over a decade in prison was enough to convince the toughest of criminals to question their loyalties. “What are you getting at here?”

“Look at his history, this kid isn’t stupid. He’s not going to get tripped up by TSA with a loaded surfboard,” Warner determined, closing the file, setting it with the others. “If he got caught, it’s because he wanted to get caught. If he rolled on his so-called bosses, it’s because it’s part of a bigger plan.”

“As interesting a theory as that is, I don’t care about Adrian’s trafficking charges or work with the DEA,” It stopped being relevant and useful to him the moment Livengood allowed the immunity deal to go through. “As I mentioned on the phone, I have new charges to file against him. I think, if you and I work together, we can leverage those charges to force him to give up his brother or—“

“He wouldn’t flip on his boyfriend to save himself. How delusional do you have to be to think he would rat on his own brother for any reason?”

“Oh, I don’t think he’s going to flip on his brother or anyone else to save himself,” Saving someone else, however, was another story. “I think he’d be willing to sacrifice Deran to save his own family, to protect his brother.”

“Therein lies the problem, Mr. Pearce. I don’t know what you’ve heard, but we don’t currently have a case against Egan. Saxe has a lot of theories, tries to tie every new case that crosses his desk to Egan and St. Patrick, but it has yet to pan out – not unlike your cases against the Codys,” Warner said pointedly. “How loosely have you tied this Deran kid to the new charges against Dolan?”

“I think Deran is the one who ordered the hit on the vic.”

“If I’m not mistaken, that’s what you’ve charged Dolan with, isn’t it?” Warner sat back in his chair, growing impatient and bored. “Along with obstruction of justice and witness tampering.”

“I have,” He had to get the kid back on the hook somehow, and as he’d told Kate Egan that morning, the evidence was piled against Adrian. “I don’t think Dolan is good for more than obstruction and tampering, but if he won’t give up Deran, he’ll go down for all of it.”

“What was the nature of the relationship between Dolan and your victim?”

“They dated briefly; the relationship ended shortly after the victim was released from the hospital,” Pretty convenient timing, to say the least. “There were a handful of text messages and phone calls exchanged in the following weeks, but from what I can, no physical contact.”

“And it took two years for the victim to come forward—No. Wait.,” Warner groaned, looking pained. “You contacted him, didn’t you?”

“I did.”

“Did you ask him if he remembered anything new or just show him a photo line-up?”

“Both.”

“How many Codys were in this line-up?”

“He picked out Deran and Andrew,” Admittedly, yes, there were more Codys than not in the line-up, but Pearce wasn’t worried about it being called into question. “He ID’d Andrew as the attacker and Deran as someone he’d met a day prior to the attack.”

“Did he tell you Dolan was involved?” Warner inquired. “Or did you hypothesize that yourself and spin it to help him along?”

“He told me Adrian was present when he first met Deran,” It took Pearce connecting Deran to Pope for Dave to confess the reason behind his sudden memory loss at the hospital when the police initially questioned him. “He admitted Adrian was the one who convinced him to tell the police he didn’t get a look at his attacker. Adrian threatened him, said if he cooperated with the police something bad would happen to him, and it was in his best interest to keep his mouth shut.”

“So you’ve got him on witness tampering,” Warner nodded. “Still not seeing how he orchestrated all of it.”

“As I said, I believe it was Deran who orchestrated the attack,” He knew Deran was behind it, could feel it in his bones. “However, without Adrian or Andrew testifying to that fact, the only person linking the victim with Andrew is Adrian.”

“Adrian, who was romantically involved with the victim and ended their relationship almost immediately after the attack, and has since started playing happy home with the youngest Cody brother,” Warner laid out the facts. “You take that to court, Dolan’s attorney will argue your vic is a jilted lover trying to get back at his ex for leaving him in his time of need. The Codys attorney will have your line-up tossed out over bias—something tells me your grudge against the family is well known. And since there’s no physical evidence, all you’ve got his your vic’s testimony, this case likely won’t make it to a courtroom.”

“It will go to court.“

“Your entire case is flimsy and so poorly put together a first year law student could get it thrown out,” Warner huffed, picking a pen up off the desk and prepared to return to what he was doing before Pearce traipsed into his office. “You want my advice? Go back to Los Angeles or San Diego, wherever the hell you’re from. Do some actual detective work and build a case supported by evidence, not tunnel vision. If that’s too difficult for you, you should seriously consider retirement, because you are truly awful at your job.”

“Warner—“

“Goodbye, Mr. Pearce.”


	8. No One Gets Out Alive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd.  
Chapter title comes from: [How Did You Love by Shinedown](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAV6P_jGE_g)  
Gif sets: [a test](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/190408541451/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-a-test-i-dont-trust-you), [walk away](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/190290499966/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-walk-away-its-what-i), [no questions asked](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/190201228091/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-no-questions-asked-no), [dinner & dessert](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/190576209881/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-dinner-dessert-are-you)
> 
> Set during Power 6x08 Deal With the Devil

Tommy hadn’t lived in a lot of places in his life, moved from the apartment he grew up in to the loft, and that was it until now. The house he’d bought with ‘Keisha was something else, big enough for both of their families, parents and siblings included, to live comfortably if they chose to – which, thank fuck, they didn’t. Even if they were willing, he doubted their families could adjust to the suburbs, Tommy just hoped he, LaKeisha and Cash could.

“How was your drive in from the city?” LaKeisha asked as they hauled boxes from the foyer to the dining room. “Lot of traffic?”

“Eh, it was all right,” With the minor exception of some dickhead cutting him off and then giving him the finger, but whatever. “It was worth it to see my girl in her dream house. You liking it all right?”

“Yeah, it’s…” ‘Keisha faltered, setting a box on the table. “I mean. Listen, you hear that?”

“Hear what?” He tilted his head, trying to pick up on whatever she was honing in on. “I don’t hear nothing.”

“Exactly,” ‘Keisha sighed. “No sirens, no cars. Nothing.”

“Yeah, well, this ain’t the city, ‘Keisha,” That was the whole point of moving to the suburbs. “It’s the opposite of chaos, which is what you wanted, right?”

“I do. I’m just saying it’s gonna take some getting used to,” LaKeisha murmured thoughtfully. “Especially for Cash.”

“I know, I know,” For every upside there was to leaving the city, there was also a downside, particularly for a kid who had a different skin tone from the majority of the other kids in the neighborhood. “We still gonna rap with him this morning before school?”

“About being a young black man in the ‘burbs is a little different than being one in the city? Yeah,” She nodded, opening one of the boxes and sifting through it. “Hey, did you get a hold of your contact in L.A.? He find out what’s going on with your little brother?”

“Yep. Ma was right, that cop don’t have anything a D.A. with half a brain would take to court,” A weak I.D. and claims made by an angry ex weren’t worth much in the grand scheme of things. “The problem is, this cop is desperate. If he doesn’t make this case, he might just snap, start planting evidence or keep digging until he actually finds something, something much worse than the charges he’s trying to pinch Adrian on now.”

“So it might actually be better for Adrian if this is the case that stuck,” LaKeisha frowned, a pensive expression on her face. “But you can’t… you can’t let your brother go to prison, he wouldn’t last five minutes.”

“No, I know it,” His baby bro had done time in juvie, but prison was a different kind of beast, especially with the kind of enemies their family had. “This case rearing its ugly head after 2yrs is that Pearce motherfucker trying to fuck with Adrian. He knows Deran’s the one behind it. Adrian knows it. Everyone fucking knows it.”

“But the cops have nothing to prove it,” LaKeisha deduced. “And your brother won’t give him up.”

“Deran could put him in the hospital again and Adrian would still trip over himself to cover for the son of a bitch,” Tommy couldn’t tell if the kid was just that in love or if it was some battered spouse syndrome shit or a combination of the two. “Gotta take him out of the equation, can’t let him make some stupid decision to protect his piece of shit boyfriend.”

“You got a plan?”

“Yes, I do,” He just needed his baby brother out of the way to enact it. “So, uh, I need you to keep Adrian busy here today, moving furniture and doing the heavy lifting, while Deran and I pick up the last of my shit from the loft.”

“I can put little brother to work,” LaKeisha readily accepted the task. “You really think he’s going to just let you walk out of here with his boy, though?”

“Deran’s gonna come with me willingly,” The kid was so desperate for one person in their family to like him, to be cool with his relationship with Adrian, that he would do just about anything to earn their approval. “And if he doesn’t agree to everything I got to fucking say, then I need to find away to convince my brother… to make him understand that he doesn’t mean a goddamn thing to that piece of trash.”

“He already knows, Tommy.”

* * *

New York was turning out to be a crapshoot, but Pearce wasn’t ready to throw in the towel just yet. Until recently, the Dolan kid had been careful to keep the two criminal elements in his life separate, the thieves in Oceanside, the drug distributers in New York City. Those lives were intersecting now, against Adrian’s will, he was sure, and that provided opportunity for mistakes to be made. Pearce just had to wait the kid out for as long as his vacation time would allow, or until the Warner forced him out, which was a likely scenario if he caught wind of his people meeting with Pearce behind his back.

“Detective Pearce, Cooper Saxe,” The man introduced himself. “I work for the US Attorney’s office.”

“Jacob Warner mentioned you,” The head of the office had nothing nice to say, but Pearce thought better than to bring it up. “What can I do for you?”

“You went to Warner to see if you could work together to use Tommy Egan’s half brother to nail him and the guys you’re chasing, the Codys, but he shut you down,” Saxe did a perfect job summarizing Pearce’s meeting with Warner. “He’s new to our office, afraid to take a chance on a case.”

“But you’re not,” Pearce guessed. “Warner made it clear to me that your office didn’t have a case against Thomas Egan.”

“Egan is good for dozens of murders on top of running a criminal enterprise,” Saxe offered up nothing Pearce didn’t already know from doing a quick background check on the man in question. “His partner, James St. Patrick, is responsible for the murder of AUSA Angela Valdes. Tommy Egan committed the murder, but St. Patrick is responsible, I know he is. I just can’t prove it yet.”

“You think Adrian Dolan can help prove it?” He hadn’t found Adrian to be particularly helpful in any respect, but he wouldn’t stand in the way of someone else making a run at him. “I remember seeing AUSA Valdes’ murder on the news not long ago. Adrian Dolan was on a plane headed here at the time, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Awfully coincidental, don’t you think?”

“You think he had prior knowledge that the shooting was going to take place?” That was a pretty serious accusation. “I was under the impression that Valdes’ murder was more a crime of opportunity than a planned hit.”

“If he didn’t have prior knowledge, he certainly knows about it now,” Saxe reasoned with zero evidence to back up his theory. “St. Patrick and Egan are like brothers, I’d bet Dolan has a similar relationship with St. Patrick. Brothers tell each other things.”

“Not to quote your boss or anything, but Dolan wouldn’t turn on his boyfriend to save his own skin,” Although, Pearce was cautiously optimistic that he could be persuaded if it were to save a member of his family. “You really think he’ll flip on his brother or someone who’s like his brother?”

“Flip on someone _**like **_his brother to save his _**actual**_ brother, maybe,” Saxe proposed. “Sweeten the deal, give him a chance to save his brother _**and**_ his boyfriend in exchange for James St. Patrick.”

“I’ve got Deran Cody and his brother Andrew on the attempted murder of Dave Trager,” Despite what US Attorney Warner thought, Pearce had just enough to convince his local DA to press charges and take it to trial, for Pope at least. “You want me to let him walk? You know how long I’ve been trying to nail the Codys? I can’t just let one go.”

“The murder of a federal prosecutor supersedes the attempted murder of a private citizen, don’t you think?” Saxe pressed him to go along with his plan. “Help me put James St. Patrick away and I’ll put in for a transfer to the West Coast office for the sole purpose of helping you put these Cody fucks away for the rest of their lives. Deal?”

“Yes,” He could use someone in the US Attorney’s office on his side. “Deal.”

* * *

What was left of his family didn’t implode and concave in on itself while Pope was away, he could take comfort in that. The biggest change, the most significant, was Smurf’s house, his family home, reduced to nothing but a pile of ash. He tried to avoid the place, refused to do more than a drive by on his way through town.

Since his return from New York, he’d holed himself up in Craig’s house for days, crashing on the couch and helping with the baby, staying out of the way as much as he could so not upset the balance Craig and Renn had found. He spent a lot of time on the porch, staring out at the sand and large expanse of water just across the road, as he would in the past, when he and Baz would share a beer and work through family shit. It was on that porch that some asshole sporting gang tats Pope recognized as belonging to the Los Reyes out of Los Angeles decided to roll up on him.

“Pope, right?” The stranger stood at the bottom of the steps. “You’re too small to be Craig and the other one’s in New York City. Process of elimination makes you the man I’m looking for.”

“Who the hell are you?” Pope tipped his head up to stare at the man, refusing to stand from the deck chair. “What do you want?”

“Rodolfo Ramirez,” The man gestured to himself. “Tommy Egan asked me to stop by.”

“Okay,” He was surprised Tommy had given him a few days of reprieve before sending someone to his door. “What does he want?”

“To remind you your first payment is due next week,” Rodolfo replied, a note of warning in his tone. “Delivered to Jess Dolan by next Friday, not a day later.”

“Or you’ll be back with some friends?”

“No. Not me or my people,” Rodolfo shook his head. “This is a favor. Tommy and me are associates, I don’t work for him. The first visit, this visit, it’s the friendly one. The next one won’t be so nice.”

“Sure.”

“You know, I heard this rumor once that Egan wrapped a guy in bubble wrap and rolled him off the side of a building just to see if he’d bounce. “Rodolfo mentioned offhandedly. “I’d keep that in mind if I were you.”

* * *

Adrian moved around a lot as a kid, after the initial move from Queens to Oceanside. His dad had trouble distinguishing rent money from beer money and as a result, they were evicted on an almost regular basis. Adrian had learned to live out of a backpack at a young age, never cherishing any physical possession he couldn’t carry on his back – surfboards notwithstanding.

When he finally had a place of his own, he became a bit of packrat, stacking books and magazines high on the shelves, and piling useless trinkets on the dresser and desk. When he moved in with Deran, he tried to find the middle ground, choosing mostly necessities and only a few extras that held sentimental value, everything else was tossed in storage or a dumpster. When he left Oceanside for Queens, it was just him and his backpack again, bringing him full circle in a strange way.

Tommy was more of the minimalist type, liking things neat, tidy, and uncluttered. Adrian had assumed his brother’s essentials-only lifestyle meant there would be less to unpack at the new house, which turned out to be exactly the wrong assumption to make. It probably wouldn’t have been such a load to carry if he’d had help, but everyone else had fucked off and left him to do it on his own.

Well, okay, not everyone. Tommy and Deran had certainly bolted as soon as his back was turned, and together, oddly enough. Cash couldn’t be blamed, he was just a kid after all, and he couldn’t afford to miss his first day at a new school. ‘Keisha was only gone long enough to drop her son off at school, however, when she returned, she had a tail that pulled into the driveway right behind her.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” Adrian mumbled under his breath, watching Federal Prosecutor Saxe and Detective Pearce exit the town car. “’Keisha, you all right?”

“I’m fine,” She huffed, slamming the car door shut. “Exception of the tagalongs who been on me since I left Cash’s school. I don’t even know who the fat motherfucker is.”

“I do,” The big one had been the dark cloud following him throughout his last few weeks in Oceanside. “I remember the dumb-lookin’ one from Tommy’s trial a few years back.”

“I thought I saw you in the gallery,” Saxe grinned, glancing around Adrian and LaKeisha to view the house. “Wow. Looks like the Jefferson’s have moved on up.”

“You gonna keep running your mouth or are you going to tell us what you’re doing at my home?” ‘Keisha asked, glaring at the uninvited guests blocking her driveway. “We got shit to do.”

“Do you know what happens to big, expensive houses like this one that are bought with money from illegal proceeds, Ms. Grant?” Pearce inquired, eyeing the property. “They’re auctioned off for well below market value, while the owners end up in six-by-eight cells. A pretty big step down, in my opinion.”

“I don’t know anything about that,” ‘Keisha claimed, lifting her chin defiantly. “I haven’t done anything illegal.”

“You sure?” Saxe asked, stepping forward. “When I put Tommy away for killing Angela Valdes and Joe Proctor, I could charge you as an accomplice if you knew about ‘em or if you were in any way involved in his criminal enterprise.”

“That goes double for you, Adrian,” Pearce acknowledged, his smugness on full display. “Your knowledge and involvement in your brother and Deran’s criminal enterprises makes you an accomplice and you will be charged as such.”

“The fact that you think anything Deran’s involved in could constitute as an enterprise is hilarious,” Adrian stifled a laugh. “Do either of you have a warrant ?”

“We’re here to give you both a chance to save yourselves,” Saxe put forth, as if he were offering them some big gift. “You should think about your futures.”

“Adrian’s already played this game once, found out very quickly where Deran’s loyalties lay and, more importantly, where they don’t,” Pearce said with a kind of certainty that suggested he knew exactly what transpired between Deran and Arian on the pier. “Do not make the same mistake with Thomas Egan, Ms. Grant.”

“Do you even have jurisdiction here?” LaKeisha sneered, dressing down Pearce with her steely gaze. “You know what? Forget that. You’re on private property. I want you both to leave.”

* * *

The apartment building Tommy and his brother and sister had grown up in was gone now, torn down by the city for one reason or another, and good fucking riddance to it. The vacant lot that took its place was more hospitable than that asbestos-lined shithole Tommy once called home.

“You know where we are?” Tommy asked his companion, wondering if he understood the significance of where they stood. “Adrian was born right here, back when it was an apartment building. Nico was drunk off his ass and Mom was high as fuck when she popped him out in the bathtub while there was a goddamn blizzard outside and the heating was out. Kid nearly froze to death before he was a day old.”

“Maybe that’s why he always puts on a sweater when the temperature drops below 70,” Deran quipped, leaning against the side of the car. “What are we doing here?”

“Oh, I just wanted a place for us to talk,” For one reason or another, the old neighborhood felt like the right place for the conversation they needed to have. “You know, when you’ve been doing this shit as long as I have, you develop a talent for sortin’ out the kind of people you need to make friends with. I’ve made a lot of friends who have contacts in high places to insulate and protect themselves.”

“And?”

“One of those friends has friends in your neck of the woods,” Had Tommy noticed anything going on with his family on the West Coast months earlier, he would have reached out to that contact sooner. “Since all this shit with my brother popped off, I’ve asked some of those friends to get some information for me.”

“About?”

“Whatever trouble that kid’s gotten himself into this time,” Boy, oh boy, did his friends have a lot to say. “Now is this part where you explain to me why you and your dickhead brother were gonna let my baby brother take the fall for _**everything**_.”

“That was his plan, there was no talking him out of it,” Deran argued, hunching his shoulders and folding in on himself a bit. “You ever tried to talk him out of something when his mind’s made up?”

“He hasn’t put his plan into action yet, has he?” As long as the kid was in New York, anything and everything to do with Oceanside was up in the air. “Your dumbass should have gone home with your brother, got yourself a good lawyer, and made a deal to keep your or chia pet out of prison.”

“Adrian decided to handle it. He felt guilty about what happened to Dave and he thought he could keep us all out of jail,” Deran explained, dropping his gaze to the dirt ground. “He was going to make a deal, cop to everything, keep me and Pope out of it. If he made bail, he would leave town before his sentencing hearing. If he was remanded, he said he had a plan to get out, but he didn’t share it with me.”

“Ghost and me would break him out as they transferred him to the prison,” That was the only reason Tommy could think that Adrian would ask if he and Ghost really pulled that same stunt when Lobos was in federal custody. “Well, guess what, we’re still gonna use that plan, except Adrian won’t have any part of it. Your ass is gonna be the one in the hot seat.”

“Adrian’s never gonna go along with that.”

“What part of _‘Adrian won’t have __**any**__ part of it’ _don’t you understand?” Tommy was trying to keep his brother out of the clutches of law enforcement, not let him walk right into ‘em. “Adrian won’t be leaving the state of New York until this shit with Detective Horseshit is put to bed. How you put it to bed is up to you. You can go with Adrian’s plan and take responsibility for your own goddamn actions, or you can kill the cop and let his obsession with your family die along with him. Your choice.”

“I’m not killing a cop no matter how much of an asshole he is. My mom never even crossed that line,” Deran shook his head. “So I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

“Consider it a test of your loyalty,” As a rule, Tommy didn’t normally offer second chances of that particular test for someone who had failed so spectacularly the first time around, but circumstances being what they are forced him to bend the rules. “I mean, if it makes you feel better.”

“Screw your loyalty test, man. I don’t have to prove a goddamn thing to you,” Deran bristled, going still as the true purpose of the test became apparent. “But this isn’t about you, is it?”

“You want to continue being part of my brother’s life, you will settle this shit in a way it don’t blowback on my family in any way,” Tommy wouldn’t accept anything less than his brother being nothing more than a footnote in the case file. “One misstep, I’ll make sure you never see him again.”

“Give me a break, man,” Deran snorted. “You and Jess are both high if you think you can control who Adrian sees. You both keep spewing bullshit to push us apart. When are you gonna realize that it’s never gonna work? We always end up together. You guys, my brothers, the cops, you can’t stop that.”

“Adrian ain’t here, so you can dial down the dramatic declaration of undying love or soul mates or whatever, it doesn’t suit you,” It was more sad than funny watching him force the words out of his mouth. “For the record, I ain’t spewing anything. I’m sure Jess had a few choice words for you before she left. She’s never been able to convince Adrian to drop you, so I guess her last resort was probably to cast doubts in your mind instead of his.”

“Something like that, yeah.”

“Yeah, well, she fucking hates you, so…” If Tommy were him, he wouldn’t believe half the shit Jess had to say about his and Adrian’s relationship. “I’m not playing my sister’s head games. You don’t settle this case, I’ll send Adrian so far up north, he’ll need a pack of sled dogs, a survival kit, and a compass to find his way back to civilization.”

“Pearce turns up dead, my family will be the prime suspects,” Deran reasoned. “If I go with Adrian’s plan, given my history, I won’t be granted bail. I’ll have to rely on you and Ghost to get me out.”

“Yep.”

“That’s the problem,” Deran chewed on his thumbnail. “I don’t trust you to hold up your end of this.”

“I shouldn’t even have a part to hold up in this. You made this mess, you should be the only one cleaning it up,” There was never going to be any trust between them or their families. “The only reason I’m helping you out is ‘cause I’m such a nice guy.”

“You’re helping me out ‘cause you think Adrian won’t be _**as**_ pissed at you when he finds out you went behind his back like this,” Deran determined, a smirk tugging at his lips. “Adrian doesn’t respond well to that whole asking forgiveness over permission thing.”

“No one does,” Tommy was willing to take the brunt of his brother’s temper if it kept the kid safe and out of prison. “So, what’s it gonna be?”

“Either way I play this, I have to leave town,” Deran muttered scornfully. “I’d be a fugitive with no way to go home.”

“Should’ve thought about that before you let your jealously get away from your common sense and tasked your brother with tossing some poor bastard off a boat,” Tommy had no sympathy for the guy, he made his own bed, now he could sleep in it. “I’m sure if you work up some tears and ask real nice, maybe beg a little, Adrian will go with you.”

“And you’d let him?”

“Like you said, I don’t control my brother,” As long as the kid was making decisions out of his own free will and not desperation or guilt, he could do whatever the fuck he wanted. “If he wants to go with you, I won’t stop him, but I’m not going to let him take the fall for something he didn’t do. We understand each other?”

“Yeah.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“Start researching criminal defense attorneys and checking flights back to Oceanside.”

“Good answer.”

* * *

‘Keisha put on a good show for Tommy, let him believe the house that was supposed to be their home was everything she’d ever dreamed of for her and her son. Adrian could see through her, though, he’d been where she was now, feeling like a stranger in someone else’s home, living someone else’s life.

“It’s a trip, right?” Adrian broached the subject carefully. “Moving from an apartment to this monstrosity.”

“No. No, it’s fine,” LaKeisha remarked, taking in the enormity of the place. “It’s, uh, it’s nice.”

“Deran’s place, it has this modern exterior, blends in with every other house on the block. When he bought the place, the interior had no finish to it, you know it was just plain timber,” It was a little null, no real personality to it until Deran got a hold of it. “He, uh, stained the walls with this tan color that looked almost orange when sun hit it a certain way, and painted the doors and cupboards a dark, moss green color. If it weren’t for the windows all along one wall looking out at the ocean, it would look like a creepy uncle’s hunting cabin, but I still thought it was nice, because he took the time to do it.”

“Yeah, okay, this place is a bit… Stepford,” LaKeisha admitted with a grimace. “I still like it. It’s beautiful. It’s a safe place for Cash to grow up.”

“But it’s a lot to take in and happened really fast,” Adrian couldn’t recall her or his brother even talking about big move prior to the purchase of the house. “He surprised you with it, right? No lead up. You were already living together, more or less, you were content, comfortable in your place and the loft. You weren’t really looking for a big change.”

“Pretty much,” She pursed her lips. “It’s not an unwelcome change, I just wish I would’ve had some warning, hell if I know why, though. Same way with you and your guy, I guess?”

“Deran asked me to look at houses with him, I thought they were for him, he’d been sleeping at his bar for way too long, it was about time he found a real place to live,” Had he known the house was for them, he would have steered Deran toward more affordable options. “I didn’t know he intended for us to move in together until his mom said something over dinner. I mean, we weren’t even really together at the time or we barely were? I don’t fucking know. We didn’t exactly have a conversation about that either.”

“I get the feeling you two have been doing this dance for a while,” ‘Keisha mentioned, settling into a chair beside him at the table. “Not much need for conversation, you just know one another well enough to know what each of you needs without having to talk about it.”

“That’s what we tell ourselves anyway,” Truth was, it didn’t matter how well you thought a knew someone, if it was there was a decision to be made that affected the two of you, then a conversation needed to be had. “Honestly, I think he was trying to make up for lost time as quickly as he could, and he was afraid if we talked about it, I would have told him we needed to wait.”

“Would you have?”

“Five years ago, not a chance. Five years ago, I ran off to Belize with him without a second thought. I would have jumped at any chance to just be with him,” A lot had changed in the years since that trip, Adrian wasn’t as quick to jump off a bridge just because Deran did anymore. “Since Deran came out, it’s like that part of his life has been on fast forward. He’s been trying to blow through everything he’d been missing out on at record pace. While I was away, he was screwing his way through every gay man that walked into his bar. When I was home a couple days, he was buying a house with plans for us to move in together.”

“He wants everything he missed out on, but he wants to move forward with you too,” LaKeisha surmised with a sympathetic smile. “Confusing as hell for you.”

“You know, I didn’t mind him exploring, getting his rocks off, whatever you want to call it,” He could’ve done without hearing about Deran’s exploits, though. “I mean, I’ve slept with other men, dated people that weren’t him, been in relationships outside of him. I had a chance to figure out what I like and what I don’t, and what kind of person I wanted to be with. I figured out that despite the pain and the lies and the never-ending drama, I wanted to be with him.”

“You don’t think he’s taken the time to do that,” She took the words right out of his mouth. “He’s with you ‘cause you’re what he knows.”

“No one knows Deran better than I do. I know what he is, who he is. I know where he comes from, have a pretty good idea of where he’s going, and I know exactly what his family is. I’ve protected every secret he’s ever whispered in my ear,” No one in the world, not even Deran’s brothers, could say the same. “It wasn’t a choice for him to let me in like that, it was a hazard of growing up so close together. And Deran, he’s not the kind of person who would choose to let someone know him inside out like that. The problem is, with the kind of life he leads, he needs someone to know him so well they can give him what he needs without him having to ask, because he never will.”

“Is it that way for anyone in the life?” ‘Keisha asked, fidgeting with one of her earrings. “Is it that way for Tommy?”

“It’s not always a partner. It’s just a person, just one. Sometimes it’s a parent or a sibling, sometimes a friend. For Tommy, it’s Jamie,” The fact that they were on the outs more often than not these days didn’t change that. “He wants that person to be you, but it’s hard for him after Holly…”

“He let her in like that?” ‘Keisha furrowed her brows, concerned. “He told her everything?”

“He told her enough,” The woman had exploited that information as much as she could. “Holly was a manipulator, always threatening to leave Tommy if he didn’t do what she said. That’s not the kind of person anyone needs in their life, much less Tommy.”

“And me?” She cocked her head to the side. “Am I what he needs?”

“Do you love him?”

“Yes.”

“Then you’re exactly what he needs. It’s corny as shit, but it’s true,” It wasn’t up to Adrian to decide what kind of person his brother should spend his life with, as long as they loved him it was good enough for him. “Look, Tommy’s gonna make a big show about taking care of you, not ‘cause he thinks you _**need**_ taking care of, but because he thinks you _**deserve**_ to be taken care of. He may not deserve it, but he does need to be taken care of.”

“I’ll take care of him,” She promised, slipping her hand into his on the table. “You know, I’ve heard Tommy, your sister, and Kate all make snide comments about how uncomfortable you are with Deran throwing his money around with you, letting you live in his house rent free and trying to give you money. They think it makes you feel like a whore or something.”

“Yeah,” It was sure as shit a nice blow to his ego. “What about it?”

“You’re not the kind of person who needs to be taken care of either. You strike me as someone who’s been taking care of himself for a long time, since you were a kid probably, like me,” ‘Keisha acknowledged. “You and Deran have known each other a long time, so he’s watched you do that for years.”

“He has.”

“Maybe it’s the same for him with you as it is for Tommy with me.”

“I’m not following.”

“He knows you don’t need to be taken care of, but thinks you deserve to be.”

“Huh.”

* * *

Showing up unannounced at a colleagues house late in the evening was not something Pearce would have done on his own, especially if that colleague wasn’t particularly fond of him. However, this wasn’t his town and he wasn’t working alone anymore, and so long as he remained in New York, it was Saxe’s show, he was just along for the ride.

“Fuck you, Saxe,” The Latina woman spat at him. “I’m gonna call the cops.”

“I thought you were the cops,” Saxe joked, but the woman wasn’t laughing. “I-I brought a cop. Blanca, this is Detective Pearce out of California.”

“I know who he is. Warner asked me to help him get rid of the both of you,” Blanca gave him a quick onceover, but didn’t offer her hand to him. “I can’t wait to tell him that you showed up here to harass me.”

“Both of us?” Pearce raised his brows. “I’ve only met with the man once.”

“You came all the way out here, to his office, after he told you not to, blowing smoke up his ass about a case you can’t make,” Blanca retorted bluntly. “Now you’re hanging your hat with the man he is one step away from filing a restraining order on.”

“Blanca, listen. Proctor said Tommy Egan killed Angela. When Proctor turned up dead, I had no way of proving it until now,” Saxe might as well have been vibrating for how excited he was to share the information he had. “LaKeisha Grant. Her name is on a house in Long Island with Egan. Not a shell property, an actual residence. The house makes Grant an accomplice, at the very least, and she’ll know if Tommy Egan killed Angela and if he then killed Proctor to shut him up.”

“We spoke with her this morning,” Pearce filled the other detective in. “She wasn’t keen to talk to us.”

“LaKeisha Grant is a key witness in my Raymond ‘Ray Ray’ Jones case,” Blanca pushed her front door open further and allowed them to follow her into the house to her workstation in the dining area. “She alibied Tariq St. Patrick the night Raymond Jones was killed.”

“And Raymond Jones is…?”

“Raymond Jones was a dirty cop who murdered Raina St. Patrick, the daughter of James and Tasha, twin sister of Tariq,” Blanca explained, but didn’t offer a motive for the crime. “He was a known associate of Kanan Stark, who LaKeisha Grant nailed as Raymond Jones’ doer.”

“I’m just going to go out on the limb as say Stark is connected to Egan and St. Patrick in some way,” Pearce was quickly learning that Warner hadn’t exactly been wrong about Saxe where Egan and St. Patrick were concerned, but that didn’t mean Saxe was wrong either. “How?”

“You want history, you can read the file,” Blanca said curtly as she shuffled through the paperwork on the table until she found the document she was looking for. “Saxe, you might be interested in this. Look who picked up Kanan Stark’s ashes after his death.”

“Erick Stark?” Saxe read the name off the paper. “His son?”

“That’s what the medical examiner assumed too, but Kanan Stark’s only son is deceased,” Blanca revealed. “I checked the security footage. Turns out, Erick Stark bears an uncanny resemblance to Tariq St. Patrick.”

“Why would Tariq…-- Kanan Stark was killed in a shootout with the police after Tasha St. Patrick said he had kidnapped her son and was holding him hostage,” Saxe said, a sudden realization dawning on him. “The hostage thing was a ruse to get the cops to go after Stark… Jesus Christ. The NYPD unwittingly carried out a hit orchestrated by the St. Patricks.”

“Exactly. You want my help, you’re gonna have to work for it, Saxe,” Blanca put stipulations on their budding partnership. “Andre Coleman and Kanan Stark were associates, but since you ran Coleman off the books, I have no way of finding him now that he’s gone MIA.”

“Actually, I strapped an ankle monitor on him,” Saxe confessed sheepishly. “I’ll give you the serial number. You find it, you find Dre. So we’re a team?”

“I want the bad guys in jail too, so yes, I’ll help you nail Tommy Egan and Dre,” Blanca agreed, before shifting her focus. “Detective Pearce, Warner filled me in on what you’re working on. I looked into Adrian Dolan for you, since he spent time here growing up. I think I might have something you could use.”

“Really?” Whatever reservations Pearce had about working with Saxe were beginning to disappear now that Blanca was involved. “Which is?”

“Murder case from 2017. Hispanic male, approximately thirty-five years of age, found beaten to death in an abandon warehouse. Local jurisdiction assumed it was gang-on-gang violence and didn’t spend a lot of time on it. The case is still open, they never found the assailant,” Blanca gave Pearce the particulars of the case she had come across. “You think this Deran Cody kid is good for an attempted murder because the victim was someone his ex, Adrian Dolan, was dating at the time, is that correct?”

“I don’t think, I know,” Once he had Adrian’s testimony to back him up, he would put Deran away for it. “The victim had met him a day prior, so he sent his brother Andrew to do his dirty work to avoid being identified.”

“He’s possessive enough of Dolan to put his brother at risk of arrest by setting him loose on a man he felt was beginning to encroach on his territory,” Blanca concluded, seemingly both alarmed and disgusted by the information. “If Deran found out Dolan was in a serious relationship, one that had a long term outlook, it would set him off. He might be compelled to eliminate that threat with his own hands, to reclaim what he believes is his and reestablish his dominance.”

“You think he’s good for this murder?”

“I think it’s worth looking into,” Blanca took a case file off her desk and passed it to him. “Like I said, it was never solved; the evidence box should still be in storage. Have a look. Maybe by some stroke of luck, you can tie this Cody kid to it. It’s a long shot, but so is the rest of your case.”

“Julio Romano?” Pearce read the name off the file tab. “What’s his connection to Adrian Dolan?”

“Aside from being Tommy Egan’s #2?”

“Yeah?”

“Atlantic City, 2011.”

* * *

The longer Deran thought on it, the easier it was for him to accept that he was the right person to handle the Pearce/Dave situation. He didn’t see himself as the instigator, Dave was the one who decided it was okay to try to take something that belonged to Deran, but in a sense, it was Deran who shifted the tides and fired the first shot, so to speak, by sending Pope after the interloper. Circumstances and territory disputes aside, Deran would admit to being the guilty party, and if someone had to take the fall, it might as well be him, although he doubted his brothers would see it that way.

“_What’s going on, Deran?”_

“Nothing new,” Which, technically, wasn’t a lie when they were dealing with the same problem and the same solution, only with a different executioner. “I gotta talk to you about some shit.”

“_If it’s about the texts Craig’s been sending Adrian, I already told him to knock it off.”_

“It’s not about that,” Deran hadn’t head a damn thing about any messages exchanged between Adrian and his brother. “So, this shit with Dave that Pearce is trying to pin on us…”

“_Adrian’s problem now, isn’t it?”_

“Uh, no,” Deran grunted, adjusting the phone against his ear. “Change of plans. I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna confess to it.”

“_The hell you are.”_

“It’s the right play,” It was the only play that could get the cops off their ass for a while. “Think about it, man. Pearce wants one of us, not Adrian. Adrian turns himself in, Pearce will make sure he doesn’t get bail, then he’ll do whatever he can to keep him at county, so he can have easier access to him. He’ll keep him close, so he can press him as often and as hard as he can for information on us.”

“_If you can’t trust Adrian to keep his mouth shut…”_

“I trust him. It’s got nothing to do with that,” He was afraid of the lengths Pearce would go to try to get Adrian to open his mouth the longer he kept quiet. “Pearce has been after us a long time, Pope, and he’s getting desperate if he’s out here turning over stones. All that frustration he’s got over getting close but never having enough to put us away, it’s gonna boil over sooner or later, and I won’t let him take that out on Adrian.”

“_You’d rather he take it out on you?”_

“Having one of us in jail should stave off his breakdown. Chances are he’d let me stew in prison a few months before he made a run at me,” Not that Deran had any intention of stepping foot inside the state penitentiary after he left the county jail. “Turning myself in and relinquishing my passport should earn me some good favor with the judge and D.A. so I can make bail. With our family’s reputation, I don’t see that bail being a under $1mil. I’ll put up the house as collateral and take off as soon as I’m out.”

“_And if you don’t make bail?”_

“That’s the part you’re not gonna like,” It was a bit more complicated and less certain than other parts of this plan. “Adrian’s brothers are going to hijack the prison transport and break me out.”

“_Jesus Christ, Deran.”_

“I don’t think it’ll be their first time.”

“_That’s not the fucking point.”_

“Pope—“

“_You actually trust these assholes to get you out if it comes to it?”_

“I trust them about as much as they trust you guys not to hurt Adrian if he’s the one confessing and going to prison,” Deran didn’t even trust his brothers not to have Adrian shivved in a holding cell before he even had a chance to stand in front of a judge at a bail hearing. “I trust Adrian to get his brothers to stick to the plan. I don’t trust his brothers, but I trust him.”

“_And if he can’t keep his brothers in line?”_

“Then I guess you and Craig are gonna have to hijack the transport yourselves,” It wouldn’t have been the craziest thing they’d ever done, but it’d be in the top 5. “I have to do this, Pope. I set it in motion, I gotta be the one to shut it down.”

“_Careful, Deran, you’re starting to sound like a grownup.”_

“Shut up.”

“_Or a real man.”_

“Can you just…not,” Deran grumbled, wanting to keep the conversation on track. “Look, you probably won’t talk to Adrian, but if you or Craig do, you can’t tell him shit. He doesn’t find out about any of this till I’m in police custody.”

“_So you two are going back into this relationship the same way you ended it the last time, huh?”_

“With secret and lies, yeah,” What could he say; old habits were hard to break. “This is the last one, though. The last secret. Once we’re clear of Oceanside, it’ll be different.”

“_Sure.”_

“You don’t believe me?”

“_I don’t care, Deran. Okay? Look, if you really plan to go through with this, I want you to make peace with Craig.”_

“He’s the one with a bug up his ass,” Deran sure as hell wasn’t going to apologize when Craig was the one being a dick of epic proportions. “All I said to him was I wanted to go with Adrian when he left the country. I wanted him to be cool with it, but he started acting like a bitch.”

“_He’s afraid to lose another brother, Deran. We both are.”_

“It’s not like leaving you guys is gonna be such a cakewalk for me. Shit, at least you guys will still have each other,” Honestly, that was a blessing or a curse depending on who fucked up what on any given day. “It’s not going to be forever. Like I told Craig, we’ll find a way to see each other once in a while.”

“_We’ll figure something out, but that doesn’t change what’s gotta be done about you and Craig.”_

“I’ll tell you what, if you talk to Craig, convince him to act like an adult for once in his goddamn life, then I’ll try to make peace with him.”

“_Okay.”_

“Okay.”

* * *

Adrian’s relationship with his brothers had always been far more amiable than their relationship with each other. He often fell into the role of peacekeeper during one of their spats, doing what he could to keep them from killing each other if Tasha couldn’t manage it. It was a rare occasion that he found himself at odds with one of them, as he had with Jamie that night at Jason’s office. He didn’t like things being strained between them, he jumped at the first opportunity to mend fences when Jamie asked him to his hotel for an impromptu meeting.

“Adrian, come in, come in,” Jamie ushered him inside. “I hope I didn’t pull you away from anything.”

“No, I was just on my way back to the loft,” Adrian said, following his brother through the suite. “Hey, uh, about what happened at Jason’s… I was just worried about Tommy. I didn’t mean to speak out of turn.”

“Don’t even worry about it. Water under the bridge, little brother,” Jamie waved off their previous confrontation as he led Adrian into the area of the room he had set up as a makeshift office. “I wanted to talk to you about the _Queens Child Project_.”

“Uh, okay,” Adrian glanced around his brother to view the small-scale building model displayed on the table. “That what that is?”

“It is,” Jamie smiled proudly. “What do you think?”

“It’s, uh, it’s great,” Wasn’t exactly what Adrian had pictured when he’d first heard of the development project. “That’s, uh, that’s not going in our old neighborhood, is it?”

“As close as I can get it. Why?”

“Some might see it as the first step in gentrifying the neighborhood,” If not for the outdoor pool attachment, the structure looked more like a high-end office building found on Wall Street than a community center for children. “It’s gonna get robbed every week, unless you’re paying security tax to whoever’s running the block these days.”

“I’ve got security covered, don’t you worry about that.”

“If you say so.”

“Now, the north wing will house the education center. On the ground level, we’ll have performing arts, which is leading from the Raina Estelle St. Patrick atrium,” Jamie spoke of the project bearing his daughter’s name with pride, but lacking the same grief Tasha’s tone carried when her daughter’s name crossed her lips. “I asked the contractor if we had enough space on the lot for a basketball court, and he said yes, so I’m naming the basketball court after Tariq.”

“That’s sweet,” There was nothing quite as arrogant as a man who thought he could buy his child’s affection with a plaque on the wall. “I’m sure he was honored, in a passive aggressive kind of way.”

“He’ll come around,” Jamie shrugged off any concern about it. “I wanted to talk to you about management.”

“Um, are you looking for recommendations?” Adrian didn’t really run in the same circle as folks with the qualifications for that kind of undertaking. “I mean, you’re the one with all the business connections. I’m sure one of them could point you in the direction of someone perfect for the job.”

“No, no. I don’t want some stranger in charge of my daughter’s legacy,” Jamie put his foot down. “It has to be family, someone who knew her, someone who loved her.”

“Tasha would be my first choice,” No one loved Raina more than the woman who had given birth to her. “She’s always had a mind for business. Without her doing the books, you and Tommy would have been in jail years ago.”

“Tasha’s made her feelings about the QPC very clear. She wants no part of it. She thinks that dinky little daycare is what Raina would have wanted,” Jamie glowered, unhappy with his wife’s feelings on the project he worked so hard to get off the ground. “No, Adrian, I’m talking about you. I want you to be the Executive Director of the Queens Child Project. I want you to be responsible for your niece’s legacy while I explore my political ambitions.”

“I didn’t know you had political ambitions,” His brother had worked on Rashad Tate’s campaign, but had never expressed any desire to run for office. “Um, I’m flattered that you would ask me to work on the QPC with you, and I’d be honored to be a part of it somehow, but –“

“I don’t want to hear whatever comes after ‘but’.”

“I’m not qualified to be an executive director of a community center or whatever you expect the QPC to be. I-I’m not qualified for any of the jobs I’ve been given lately,” Adrian understood Jason throwing him in different jobs every other day, dude was trying to fuck with his head and suss out which position he would be best suited for, but fuck knows what Jamie was trying to do. “I have zero experience in running anything.”

“You ran your own surf shop.”

“Tao ran the shop, I just fixed boards, man,” Actually, he and Tao shared the managerial duties as well as ownership until Adrian sold his half, but admitting that would be detrimental to his argument. “I would love to be a part of Raina’s legacy, but whoever you put in charge of it should know what they’re doing.”

“You’ll learn,” Jamie said, as if that were the be-all/end-all solution. “We haven’t even started construction yet. You have months to prepare. You can take some classes on the subject, educate yourself.”

“W-What about your uncle? You have an uncle still in the old neighborhood, right? He owned that jazz club,” If Adrian was right for the job because of the shop, then Jamie’s uncle was just as qualified a candidate. “Or-or Jess. Jess would be much, much better suited for this than I would.”

“I agree, Jess would be perfect, but Jess has a child, a man, a good job, and a life in Oceanside. I couldn’t ask her to give all that up,” Jamie explained with reasons that weren’t at all insulting. “And my uncle still runs that old jazz club. You, though, you are a clean slate.”

“That’s a nice way to say I’ve got nothing,” Adrian could have come around on the job if he were being chosen for his own merit, but not because of his lack of attachments. “Well, thanks for the job offer, but no thanks.”

“I am giving you a chance to start over, to do something worthwhile with your life,” Jamie supplemented his holier-than-thou attitude with a little I-know-best. “Walk away from Jason’s organization, and Tommy’s. Put a couple thousand miles between yourself and your ex. Meet someone new, someone who will treat you right. Settle down, get married, adopt a couple of kids. Change your life.”

“So you’re just going wave this magic wand in my face and make all _**your**_ dreams come true?” They sure as hell weren’t Adrian’s dreams. “I don’t want to be part of anyone’s organization, you got that part right, but that’s about all you got right. The other shit doesn’t interest me.”

“It should,“ Jamie snapped. “You’re not a kid anymore, Adrian. You’re too old to be living life just looking for the next big wave. It’s time for you to settle down and do something with your life.”

“That’s funny coming from the guy who spent 25yrs trying to become the biggest drug dealer in New York City.”

“Exactly my point, I realized my dreams too late. I don’t want you to make the same mistake,” Jamie dropped a hand on Adrian’s shoulder, gripping it firmly. “I’m giving you the chance to be something better than what you are, and to honor your niece at the same time.”

“If I want to honor Raina, I’ll advocate for gun control and police reform or donate to children’s charity in her name,” Adrian could think of a dozen things he could do to honor his niece that did not involve running some lavish community center. “Look, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but you gotta understand I don’t want the same kind of life you want.”

“You may not want it, you need it.”

“That’s not for you to decide.”

“Will you just think about it?”

“Sure.”

“Thank you.”

* * *

Pope knew his younger brothers well enough to know that there wasn’t a single conversation he could have with them that would end well. It was always one argument after the next with those two, more so when the conversation was about one of them and whatever dumbass thing they had done. Luckily, Pope also knew the quickest way to put Craig in a good mood was to ply him with food.

“This looks great, man,” Craig salivated shoveling eggs and bacon into his mouth like he hadn’t eaten a real meal in weeks. “Thanks for making breakfast.”

“Thanks for me letting me sleep on your couch again,” Pope would’ve gotten a cheap motel room, but the need to keep his brother close outweighed his need for a semi-comfortable bed and privacy. “Where’s J?”

“I don’t know,” Craig shrugged, gulping down his coffee. “He lit out of here a couple days ago, haven’t seen him since. Angela either. Told her to find somewhere else to stay, didn’t really like having her in the house.”

“Okay,” He would track them down later, wasn’t too worried about them at the present moment. “You been by Smurf’s place? Anything salvageable?”

“Not even a deck chair, man,” Craig muttered with a scowl. “Arson investigator thinks there was some kind of accelerant used to make the fire burn hotter and faster.”

“Makes sense,” The arsonist Tommy hired wanted the job done before the fire department had a chance to arrive. “Any news on the insurance?”

“No one’s getting paid until they can verify who the actual owner of the house is,” Craig remarked, face twisted in confusion. “I guess there was a discrepancy with the paperwork. Smurf had two different wills on file. The oldest one left the house to someone named Pamela Johnson, the other was dated for a few months back, but wasn’t actually filed until a few days before the fire, and in that one you get the house.”

“And since the cause of the fire was arson, they want to make sure it’s not some insurance scam,” It made sense, insurance companies were always looking for a reason not to pay out. “Smurf did leave the house and a few other things to Pamela Jonson. To keep the house in the family, J put together a new will, backdated it to make it seem like Smurf changed her mind after she got sick.”

“Would’ve worked out perfectly if Adrian’s brother hadn’t had those assholes burn the place down.”

“We would’ve done worse if someone put a hit out on a member of our family,” At least that’s what Pope wanted to believe, but when it came to Baz’s death, that call for blood and retribution had gone unanswered. “If we’re not getting the insurance money for the house, we’re gonna have to pull a job in the next couple days to get the money to pay Tommy.”

“We’re really doing that?”

“Yeah, we are,” They didn’t really have a choice in that. “I wouldn’t have agreed to it if I thought there was another way. Plus, it’s not like Smurf never paid people off to avoid retaliation.”

“I still don’t like it,” Craig muttered, stabbing his eggs with the fork. “If we’re pulling a job, we’re gonna need Deran. You have to tell him to come home.”

“We’re gonna have to learn to do this kind of stuff without Deran,” They had learned to pull jobs without Pope while he was in prison, and without Baz after he was murdered, they’d learn without Deran. “He’s coming back soon, but only to sort this Dave shit out.”

“I thought Adrian was doing that?”

“Deran decided to man up and do it himself,” If they were a family that was big on morals, Pope would be proud that his brother was stepping up to accept responsibility for his actions, but at this point, he wasn’t sure how he felt about it when it went against everything Smurf taught them. “We need to get the names of the cops Smurf had on her payroll in case things go a certain way. We’ll need them to get us information on prison transport.”

“J’s the only one Smurf’s cop buddies have reached out to,” Craig reminded him. “Why would we need information on prison transport? What the fuck is Deran planning to do?”

“The same thing Adrian was going to do,” Pope didn’t like it, but he was trying to respect his brother’s choice. “Deran started it, now he wants to finish it.”

“Bullshit,” Craig snorted. “Whatever the reason, he’s not going it ‘cause he feels some sort of obligation—“

“It doesn’t matter why,” It was guilt, if Pope were to hazard a guess, not that it was any more relevant than obligation. “We just have to make sure he doesn’t spend the next couple decades in prison because of it.”

“This is all coming up now ‘cause Pearce got that Dave guy to talk,” Craig considered the circumstances for a moment. “All we’ve got to do is shut him up. Permanently.”

“Adrian didn’t want that.”

“Adrian’s not the one planning to confess to anything anymore. He doesn’t get an opinion when it’s _**our brother**_ on the line,” Craig grumbled, fingers flexing around his coffee cup. “Dave being dead solves all our problems. No one goes to jail or becomes a fugitive. At the end of the day, everyone gets to come home.”

“Makes sense,” Something Pope would have thought himself if not for recent events. “We do this, we’re going to have to do it before Deran comes home, that only gives us a day or two max, he’s already looking at flights home.”

“We gotta do it quiet. We don’t want the murder of a witness being traced back to us,” Craig drawled, examining their options. “An accident would be our best bet.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Murder isn’t usually your first answer to a problem.”

“I just want to keep our family together.”

* * *

It was amazing how much simpler things could be between Adrian and Deran when it was just the two of them, without their families constantly breathing down their necks. Since Jess and Pope had returned to Oceanside and Tommy and ‘Keisha had moved out to Long Island, the loft had become a safe little nook of solitude where he and Deran could live as they wanted, absent of their judgmental siblings with their unsolicited opinions.

“Morning,” Deran yawned, shuffling into the kitchen with his nose in the air. “What’s that smell? Grilled cheese? You making sandwiches for breakfast?”

“Dude, it’s the middle of the afternoon,” Adrian gestured to the clock on the wall that read out 4:17pm. “You slept through the day.”

“If you wanted me up at a decent hour, you shouldn’t have kept me up all night,” Deran smirked, sliding onto a bar stool at the island. “You hear from Craig today?”

“Nope,” Adrian’s phone had been blessedly silent all day. “Am I supposed to?”

“You tell me,” Deran countered. “Heard he’s been sending you some bitchy texts.”

“Oh, those. Yeah, he thinks I’m manipulating you into leaving and that I’m stealing you away from your family,” Just like Smurf always thought he would. “He must really be serious about laying off the coke and oxy. He always turns into a massive dick when he’s sober.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize for him,” Adrian was long past blaming Deran for his brothers’ behavior. “I always knew he was the most like Smurf where you were concerned. Possessive. I don’t think he wants you to fuck him though, that might be the only thing that sets him apart from her.”

“That’s comforting,” Deran mumbled, raking a hand through his tangled hair. “Why didn’t you tell me he was giving you shit?”

“Wasn’t going to give you two another reason to be pissed at each other,” Not that those two needed a reason, as close as they were, the smallest things set them off. “I’m not really sure why he’s mad at me _**now**_. Shouldn’t he have gone through these motions before we left Oceanside?”

“I told him I was going with you when you left this time.”

“Considering how that worked out the last time you said it, I’m not sure why anyone would believe it this time,” Adrian wasn’t trying to be argumentative, but he also wasn’t going to let Deran think he was buying into the same line of bullshit again. “If I had known that’s what he was so upset about, I would have told him he had nothing to worry about instead of leaving him on read.”

“You and I are leaving together this time,” Deran started calmly, clearly, enunciated each word, trying to pass it off as fact rather than fiction. “That’s why I’ve gotta go back to Oceanside tomorrow. I need to get the house and bar in order, get some stuff together.”

“You’re leaving tomorrow?”

“Got a flight in the afternoon,” Deran replied, nose in the air once more. “Food’s burning.”

“Shit,” Adrian’s eyes had never left the pan, but in the midst of his conversation with Deran, he failed to notice the smoke rising or bread charring. “Fuck.”

“You’re the only person in the world who can burn food while staring right at it.”

“Fuck you.”

“You know, I was thinking, since your brother lit up Smurf’s place, Pope’s gonna need somewhere to stay,” Deran mentioned casually. “A place on the beach might be good for him, the waves could keep him calm or something.”

“Yeah, up until his girlfriend turns it into a shooting gallery,” Adrian muttered as the front door suddenly swung open, hitting the wall with a loud bang. “If I’m going to stay here any longer, I really should change those locks.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Adrian!” ‘Keisha called out from the entryway. “Adrian, are you here?”

“In the kitchen!” He shouted as he dumped the burnt grilled cheese in the trashcan. “Doing an awful job at making something to eat.”

“Oh, thank God you’re here,” ‘Keisha rushed into the kitchen, wringing her hands anxiously. “I gotta talk to you.”

“Are Tommy and Cash okay?” Adrian set the pain aside and gave the woman his full attention. “Are_** you**_ okay?”

“T-Tommy and Cash are fine. Tommy’s taking Cash to basketball practice,” LaKeisha said, gaze flickering to Deran. “Can he go somewhere else? I-I mean, just while we talk?”

“There any reason why he should?”

“I got a problem similar to the one you had recently,” ‘Keisha shifted nervously on her feet. “I know how close it came to ending very badly for you because of his family, and I just…I don’t trust him.”

“I’ll, uh,” Deran cleared his throat, rising from his seat. “I’ll go take a shower.”

“Thanks,” Adrian flashed him a grateful smile as Deran ambled out of the room, leaving him and ‘Keisha alone. “What’s going on, LaKeisha?”

“Everyone’s been warning me that the cops would use Cash to get me to flip on Tommy, b-but I don’t think I took it seriously enough,” LaKeisha choked out the words. “No. No. I know I didn’t take it seriously enough. _**I know**_.”

“LaKeisha,” Adrian tried to keep a level head and not jump to conclusions. “What happened?”

“Some bitch cop stopped me today,” Her voice shook as she recalled the encounter. “She had a lady from social services with her. They put Cash in the back of their car. This cop, Adrian, Detective Rodriguez or some shit, she threatened to take Cash.”

“What?” Adrian froze, body tensing. “W-What does that mean? What exactly did she say?”

“She was making noise about how the feds were closing in on Tommy, and they needed my cooperation,” ‘Keisha, even her shaken state, rolled her eyes at the act of desperation by the police. “She said she knew I was laundering Tommy’s money through the weave shop, said I was an accomplice to all his shit.”

“If they had proof of that, she would have arrested you on the spot, and you would’ve been having that conversation in an interrogation room,” Adrian hated that he knew that from his own experience. “You’d be in jail, not here talking to me.”

“She told me that’s exactly what she’d do if I didn’t cooperate,” ‘Keisha retorted, hands gripping the edge of the counter. “She’d arrest me and throw Cash into the system. S-She wouldn’t even let him go with his dad, ‘cause Kadeem’s an ex-con. She was going to put him in foster care.”

“Jesus,” There was no low the dickbag cops wouldn’t sink to. “Did you ask for a lawyer?”

“When I did, she said she would ‘hold on’ to Cash until I retained counsel,” She snarled through gritted teeth. “I signed something. I _**had**_ to sign something. I signed something, but I didn’t say anything, I swear. It was just some paper that said I agreed to cooperate. I would never turn on Tommy.”

“You did what you had to do to get your kid out of the car,” Adrian couldn’t fault her for that, he didn’t think anyone could. “It’s okay. You did the right thing.”

“What the fuck am I supposed to do now? This bitch ain’t gonna drop this,” ‘Keisha growled, sagging against the countertop. “W-What the fuck am I supposed to do?”

“Walk away.”

“Walk away?”

“Don’t let the feds make you collateral damage in their war with Tommy and Ghost. Just walk away. It’s what I should have done as soon as that cop started asking me about Deran,” If he could’ve done things differently, he would have disappeared as soon as Livengood raided Jack’s warehouse , when Jason had what he wanted, but before Pearce had done more than introduce himself. “LaKeisha, this is the only play you have if you want to keep Cash safe and protect Tommy. You take your son and you go. I can help if it’s something you’re willing to do.”

“I’ve been thinking about that since I dropped Cash off, I know it’s the only way to protect them both, Cash and Tommy,” ‘Keisha sighed, rubbing the lines of stress on her forehead. “But I don’t even know where to start or where to go. And I…I don’t know if I can hurt Tommy like that.”

“Tommy will understand that you’re trying to protect him. I’ll talk to him about it once you’re gone,” Adrian wouldn’t let his brother think the woman he loved had turned rat or just up and left him for no reason at all. “You need to pack a bag, one each for you and Cash, and gather all the money you can. You have to go somewhere the cops can’t get to you, which means somewhere with no extradition. Tommy’s got aliases set up for you guys, right? Do you know if he ever got the passports for those aliases?”

“Our aliases, the I.D.s and stuff, they’re in a safe at the house, but something was wrong with passports and never had a chance to get them fixed,” ‘Keisha furrowed her brows. “W-Why? Do you think the feds put an alert on our real passports?”

“It’s possible,” The feds weren’t going to give them a chance to slip away. “I can get you passports, I just need you to get me your and Cash’s alias information so it all matches up.”

“You going to be able to do that by tonight?” LaKeisha asked, collapsing onto a barstool. “That cop bitch said shit was being expedited. They’re going to pick Cash and me up _**tonight**_.”

“You need to call her and tell her you’ll come in on your own, you don’t need to be picked up,” That could buy them a few hours if they were lucky. “The passports are gonna take longer than a couple hours. We’re gonna have to take you and Cash to one of Tommy’s safe houses until they’re done.”

“What about Tommy?” Anguish cascaded over her face. “I-I can’t just leave him without a goddamn word. I don’t want to leave him at all.”

“If you tell Tommy that cop threatened you, how she used Cash, Tommy will go off the rails. He’ll do something stupid thinking it’ll fix things, but it’s going to make things worse for all of you,” The road to hell was paved with good intentions, as they said, and Tommy’s intention to save his family would more likely result in a life sentence for himself or a needle in his arm. “We’ll get you out of town tonight, after Tommy’s gone to bed. We’ll get you out of the country once the passports are ready. I will tell Tommy everything once you’re on your way to wherever you’re going. When you get there, you’re going to buy a prepay phone and call Tommy, so he knows where to meet you.”

“You think he’ll… You think he’ll come find us?” LaKeisha asked, a faint lit of hope in her voice. “You think he’ll leave all this for us?”

“Yes, I do,” That was the biggest differences in their situation, unlike Deran, Tommy’s love for the family he’d made for himself was greater than his fear of change. “If for some reason he doesn’t, or if it takes him a little longer than expected, then I’ll do it. I’ll come meet you and Cash. I have to leave anyway, and no one’s coming with me, and I…I don’t want to start a whole new life by myself.”

“Neither do I.”

“You gonna be able to play it cool with Tommy?”

“Yeah, I’ll, uh, I’ll be fine.”

“Just relax and remind yourself this is to protect him and your son.”

“I got it.”

* * *

In his wildest dreams, Tommy never could have imagined he’d be that guy with a woman and a house in the ‘burbs, or that he’d be driving a kid he loved like his own to basketball practice like a real dad or something. A normal life wasn’t something he ever allowed himself to want, especially after seeing house Ghost had blown up his own, but now that he’d had a taste, felt what it was like to have a real family, he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to let it go.

“That’s gotta be the team. Get in there. Have some fun,” Tommy nudged the boy toward the court, but the kid didn’t budge. “C-note, what’s up? You nervous to meet your new teammates?”

“It’s not that,” Cash glanced up at Tommy timidly. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Is it about sex?”

“What?” The boy blanched. “No!”

“Oh , okay,” Phew. It wasn’t Tommy’s place to be having that conversation anyway. “Well, shoot.”

“Mom got pulled over coming home from school today,” Cash confessed, fear and confusion flashing over his young features. “A cop made us come out of the car, and I did everything you and Mom told me to do when a cop was around, but a woman took me away.”

“What do you mean, a woman took you away?” Rage boiled inside Tommy’s gut, a promise of retaliation for the bitch who thought it was okay to put hands on his kid. “What’s that mean, Cash? You go somewhere?”

“I sat in a cop car while Mom talked to the lady. I did exactly what you said, and they let me go back to her, but Mom was so scared,” Cash sniffled. “And I just wanted to know, did I do the right thing?”

“Yeah, kid,” Tommy tried his best to reassure him. “You did the right thing.”

“Okay,” The boy breathed a sigh of relief. “Good.”

“All right? Now get in there and have some fun,” Tommy pasted on a smile and pushed the boy toward the basketball court once more. “I want fifty point and five fouls. Get kicked out of that game, will you?”

“All right!” Cash grinned and bounded off to join his team.

“All right,” Tommy had planned to stay for the duration of the practice to make sure Cash was comfortable with his new coach and the other kids, but now he had to go home and ask LaKeisha what the fuck was going on and why she’d keep something so serious from him. “I’ll pick you up after practice!”

Tommy left the kid in what he hoped were good hands, and turned to leave the gymnasium. He made his way to the parking lot, mentally preparing himself for the impeding argument with his girl. The only thing preventing from getting home was some dickhead in a suit scoping out his ride.

“Can I fucking help you?” If Tommy hadn’t paid for the car in full, he might’ve thought it was getting repossessed or some shit. “The fuck you think you’re doing?”

“It’s a nice car, Mr. Egan, not as nice as the Mustang that’s registered in your name, but still a decent piece of machinery,” The man admired the vehicle for another moment before addressing Tommy face-to-face. “I’m Detective Pearce, Mr. Egan. I’m sure your mother and brother have mentioned me.”

“You’re the one with a hard-on for the Codys,” Didn’t explain why the son of a bitch was spending more time harassing Tommy’s family than the one he actually wanted behind bars. “The fuck you want with me?”

“You’ve put together a nice little family for yourself, beautiful woman, sweet kid,” The detective praised, nodding approvingly. “Baz Blackwell, the Codys adoptive brother, he had that set-up too. A life outside the life, so to speak. Would you like to know where that happy family is now?”

“If I say no, you’re just gonna tell me anyway, so…”

“Catherine Blackwell is missing a person, presumed dead after the police questioned her about her husband and in-laws criminal activities. Baz was shot to death outside of his home. Their little girl is now in foster care,” Pearce felt compelled to update Tommy on the life and times of people he didn’t give two fucks about. “I imagine things will work out similarly for you and Ms. Grant.”

“You been dealing with these Cody fucks for too long,” Tommy and his people didn’t play the same kind of games. “We trust our people out here. We got nothing to hide. Why the fuck would we care if the cops yap at one of us?”

“Right. Of course. You’re completely innocent,” Pearce took the party line in stride. “Your brother Adrian isn’t. He’s in an awful lot of trouble.”

“This the part where you tell me I can help him out of it?” That was the most overused scam the cops had in their arsenal. “I confess to something you think I did and you’ll give Adrian a pass on the charges you’ve cooked up. That sound about right?”

“The US Attorney’s office would like that, but, personally, I don’t care about you or what you’ve done. You’re out of my jurisdiction,” Pearce chortled like he’d said something funny, but Tommy didn’t get the joke. “With a mother like Kate, I’m sure the burden of raising your younger siblings fell to you, so I’m not really surprised Adrian turned out the way he did. By all reports, Jess appears to be a fine upstanding citizen, so, hey, I guess you’re battin’ 500.”

“You really like hearing yourself talk, don’t ya?”

“Your siblings see you as a parental figure, they put a lot of stock behind what you say,” Pearce acknowledged, slipping his hands into his pants pockets. “If you were to speak with Adrian, convince him that the best way to save himself is to tell me everything he knows about the Codys illegal activities, I could convince a judge to give him probation for the witness tampering and obstruction of justice.”

“How generous,” That was big talk from someone who didn’t even have a case. “No deal, man.”

“I don’t think you understand the severity of your brother’s situation,” Pearce cautioned against turning his proposal down. “If he doesn’t give up Deran, he will feel the full weight of Deran’s actions. He will do time for all of it.”

“No, he won’t,” Tommy had already taken care of that himself, even if he hadn’t, he wasn’t about to let his brother make a deal with the same prick who tried to fuck up the last one. “I know that weak ass Cody bitch batted your around like a mouse on a string for her own amusement, but I’m not her and you ain’t in your quaint little seaside suburb anymore. Out here, there are consequences for messing with another man’s family.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Just something for you to think about the next time you take a run at my brother or another member of my family.”

“Is that what happened with Julio Romano, you found out he was messing with your little brother?” Pearce questioned, refusing to heed Tommy’s warning. “I was thinking maybe Deran had something to do with Romano’s murder, but maybe it was you all along.”

“Julio was my boy. You understand?” Tommy was devastated when he found his body on that disgusting warehouse floor. “You’d keep his name out your goddamn mouth if you knew what was good for you.”

“Well, that depends on what I find when I start turning over stones.”

* * *

Deran had heard stories about Adrian’s cousins, the Donnelly brothers, but he’d never put much weight behind them, they were pretty wild and outlandish. Who the hell would believe that one little family from Hell’s Kitchen could go to war with the Irish and Italian mobs and live to tell the tale? Meeting one of those cousins who supposedly survived such an ordeal didn’t change Deran’s opinion much.

“What’s up, A?” Jimmy Donnelly grinned, tossing his arm around Adrian’s shoulders. “It’s been a minute, kid. You see the new sign?”

“It’s a decal of a lit match next to a cracker, Jimmy, same sign that was up the last time I was here – minus the bullet holes,” Adrian laughed, clapping his cousin on the back. “You want me to be all ooh’d and aah’d, you should put up a sign that actually has the name of the place on it.”

“It’s up there,” Jimmy claimed indignantly, gesturing to the sign. “You got fire and you got a cracker. Firecracker.”

“Okay, Jimmy,” Adrian snorted. “It’s more detailed than the sign Deran’s got up at his bar, I guess.”

“I don’t have a sign,” Deran didn’t want The Drop to be the kind of place that needed a sign, his customer base had to find the place by word of mouth.

“Yeah, exactly,” Adrian huffed, turning to his cousin. “So, Jimmy, I, uh, I need a favor. Think we can go inside and talk?”

“Sounds serious,” Jimmy pulled up the door. “Come on in. We’ll have a beer, it might even be cold.”

“Fancy.”

Deran couldn’t help but notice Jimmy’s limp, the way he favored one leg, as he led them into the dreary, poorly lit establishment. Adrian had said once that his eldest cousin had been in an accident as a kid, some asshole ran over his leg while he was sitting on the sidewalk, leaving him crippled. Adrian had also warned him not to say anything about the injury unless he was looking for a fight.

“How’s the family? Sean finally go back to school like aunt Helen always wanted?” Adrian asked, taking a seat at the bar. “I know Kevin’s still placing bets, he called looking for money a few months back. Jenny Reilly still jerking Tommy around?”

“Tommy?” Deran cut in to Adrian’s rambling. “Wha—“

“He’s talking about my brother Tommy, not his,” Jimmy clarified as he set a couple beers in front of them. “Adrian, you come to me for a favor and then you veer off into useless bullshit, trying to catch up on crap you already know, avoiding what you’re actually here for. Is it that bad?”

“It’s not good,” Adrian muttered, popping the cap off his beer. “I wouldn’t bring this to you if I had another option, but I don’t have the same kind of contacts as you out here.”

“I don’t need to know specifics. We’re family, I got your back, no questions asked,” Jimmy alleviated some of tension Adrian was clearly feeling. “Just tell me what you need.”

“A couple clean passports as soon as you can get ‘em,” Adrian laid his request on the table. “And your discretion. My brother can’t know about any of this until it’s done.”

“You need a couple passports ASAP,” Jimmy quirked a brow, looking his cousin dead in the eye. “What the fuck did you do?”

“No questions asked, huh?”

“Exceptions can be made,” Jimmy smacked his hand on the bar. “Now start talking, A.”

“The cops have Tommy’s girl in a tough spot,” Adrian admitted, taking a swig from the lukewarm beer. “I gotta get her out of town.”

“Well, why the fuck didn’t you just say so?” Jimmy shook his head, reaching for the landline phone behind the bar. “I’ll call Joey Ice Cream, have him set a meet with the passport guy. I’m gonna need cash and the info for the passports.”

“Yeah, I got that,” Adrian took a folded manila envelope from his pocket and handed it to his cousin. “Thank you, Jimmy. Seriously.”

“What’s family for, cuz?”

“Not usually for being helpful,” Then again, Deran’s experience with family revolved around the selfish assholes in his own tree. “Guess Adrian lucked out with you guys, huh?”

“Oh, man, don’t try sucking up to me,” Jimmy shook his head, eyes shining with amusement. “Jess is pretty vocal about you when she updates us on what’s going on with their side of the family. I think she was hoping we’d go out there and kill ya.”

“But you didn’t,” That was just one more thing, in an increasingly long list, that Deran did not fucking get about Adrian’s family. “Why?”

“Why bother?” Jimmy shrugged. “When Adrian gets tired of your shit, he’ll do it himself.”

“I’ve earned that right,” Adrian joked, throwing Deran an easy smile over his shoulder. “Not that I’d do it.”

“If I haven’t pushed you to the edge yet, you don’t have one,” Deran had given Adrian plenty of reasons to smother him in his sleep. “Still gonna sleep with one eye open tonight, just in case you get ideas in your head.”

“If I was going to kill you, I wouldn’t do it in bed.”

“I always thought you’d just snap one day and hit me over the head with something during an argument,” A crime of passion, blunt force trauma, was definitely more there style. “While your adrenaline was still pumping, you’d cut off my head, take it to Smurf’s to show her and my brothers in a ‘_yeah, I fucking did it’_ kind of way.”

“I’ve had that dream.” Adrian admitted unapologetically. “But my plan’s more long term. I mean, I would have to put it in motion at least a year in advance. No one would suspect me of a thing. We were so happy, celebrating the next chapter in our lives, and then…. I tried to help you, everyone saw, but…it wasn’t enough, I couldn’t save you. Very sad.”

“Wait, you actually have a plan?”

“Take comfort in the fact that I haven’t used it yet.”

“_**Yet**_?”

“Wow,” Jimmy whistled. “You two have such a healthy relationship.”

* * *

Tommy had feared the worst going into his argument with LaKeisha, assuming she’d continue to lie and cover up the visit from the cops, but to his surprise, she’d confessed to everything, including an earlier visit from that piece of shit Saxe. It was hard to be angry after learning her reason for keeping that secret stemmed from something Jess had told her about Holly. Tommy could forgive LaKeisha’s secrecy, even his sister’s truth telling, but Saxe and Blanca, that was another story entirely.

“Ghost, you know that fuckboy Saxe from the feds?” Tommy growled into the speaker of his phone. “We gotta move on him now.”

“_No, Tommy, law enforcements off –limits. You know that. Actually, maybe you don’t.”_

“This motherfucker is violating, Ghost. He’s gone too fucking far,” He crossed a serious fucking line threatening Tommy’s girl and having his colleagues use Cash as a pawn in whatever fucking game they were playing. “You know where he stay at?”

“_I can’t go there, and neither should you. Just keep your head down. Staying out of jail is the best revenge on Saxe. Trust me.”_

“And that Blanca bitch or the outta towner Pearce? That motherfucker was waiting for me at the gym when I took Cash to practice,” Tommy would’ve dropped that mother fucker right in the parking lot if they’d been anywhere else. “Son of a bitch had the balls to bring up Julio.”

“_Julio? What’s Julio got to do with anything?”_

“I don’t know, man. I guess he found out Julio and Adrian were special friends or some shit,” Hindsight, he was probably trying to see where Tommy stood with all that, and Tommy’s reaction had probably given away more than he would have liked. “I think he’s gonna try to pin Julio’s murder on Deran.”

“_Well, we know who killed Julio, Tommy. Toros Locos. Deran had nothing to do with that.”_

“The worst this asshole can do is use Julio to get a rise out of Adrian,” Or a rise out of Deran, it really depended on how much Deran knew about that part of Adrian’s life. “This dude is picking his way through Adrian’s life, looking into every goddamn thing.”

“_He’s not going to find anything, Tommy.”_

“That’s not the fucking point, Ghost,” Tommy wasn’t worried about the prick actually finding something he could use. “He thinks Adrian’s the one who can serve the Codys up on a silver platter to him. Until he puts them behind bars or in the ground, he’s gonna be a thorn in Adrian’s side, looking over his shoulder, investigating everything he does. Adrian ain’t never gonna be free unless we take care of this motherfucker.”

“_Killing the cops investigating one of us is only going to bring more cops down on us. Think, Tommy. Gotta be smart about this.”_

“Ghost—“

“_What about Blanca? What did she do that’s got you all up in arms?”_

“Threatened to take Cash from LaKeisha,” Tommy didn’t trust Ghost enough to tell him the full story on that. “Said she was gonna throw him in foster care.”

“_Well, if she makes good on that threat, we’ll use Tate’s connections to get Cash back to LaKeisha like I did when Saxe took Dre’s daughter from him. Relax, Tommy. If the cops really had what they claim to have, they wouldn’t be pushing so hard to have our people rat. As long as everyone keeps their mouths shut, it’ll be fine. All right?”_

“Yeah, all right.”

“_So don’t go killing any law enforcement, okay? We got enough shit to deal with, with this Jason shit. We don’t need another fire to put out.”_

“Yeah, I got it.”

* * *

Getting a handle on the Dave situation before Deran could catch wind of it meant they had to take care of things quickly, but efficiently. They had a day to prep and a day to execute the plan. Since Dave had seen Pope’s face, the legwork was left to Craig.

“The guy’s still in Orange County, but he doesn’t work on a boat anymore. He’s in retail, working at one of those little shops off the boardwalk that sells overpriced trinkets to tourists,” Craig went over the finer points of the marks schedule. “On his lunch break he goes to a trauma support group downtown. After work, he takes a run on the beach, up to the bluffs, keeps going until the sun sets. Then he goes home, showers, changes, and meets up with friends at a bar and grill for drinks and dinner. I talked to the bartender; she said he’s there most week nights.”

“We might not need his morning schedule after all,” They had started the project after the man had left for work and hadn’t had a chance to familiarize themselves with his morning routine. “The best option might be to hit him while he’s on the run. He takes that run alone?”

“He did today,” Craig slid his phone across the table, allowing Pope to swipe through the pictures he’d taken of the man. “There’s no way to know if he sticks to that routine everyday unless we watch him more and we don’t have the time for that.”

“If he does take the run every day, we’ll hit him there,” A slip and fall off the cliff-side when he stopped to catch his breath or take a sip of water would be easy to make happen. “If he doesn’t, we’ll have to draw him out of the bar without his friends noticing.”

“We can hit him on his way home from the bar,” Craig suggested. “Dark roads, little traffic. We can just nudge him off the shoulder…”

“Unless he’s the responsible type, takes a cab or rideshare home,” Pope wasn’t looking to hurt anyone but the one they were after. “You know if he lives alone?”

“I’m not sure. I didn’t see anyone else when I followed him home from the bar,” Craig noted. “We can’t set the place on fire after our house just went up.”

“Carbon monoxide poisoning?” It was pretty hands off, went against their usual M.O., the cops certainly wouldn’t suspect them of it. “He can go in his sleep.”

“That could work.”

“That’s going to be our back-up plan,” They could hit the house before Dave got home from the bar. “If he takes his run tomorrow, I’d prefer to hit him that way, there’s less room for error.”

“All right,” Craig nodded. “I know we’re not telling Deran anything, but are we bringing J in on this?”

“No,” The kid would just find a way to make it more complicated than it needed to be. “Look, I’m going to handle this myself, Craig. You’ve done your part.”

“Pope, if something goes wrong, he can identify you.”

“Exactly. He’s already got me and Deran on the hook, he doesn’t need any more of us,” Pope wasn’t going to put his brother at risk unnecessarily. “You’ve got a kid to think about, Craig. You can’t be the one to do this. I’ll do it.”

* * *

Contrary to what his behavior might have suggested, Adrian didn’t actually enjoy hiding things from his family, it was a necessity more than a choice. He did what he thought was best for them, and sometimes that meant keeping things to himself instead of sharing. A consequence of being tightlipped was having to face the music when they were inevitably let in on his secrets.

“Yes, okay, I-I was there when Saxe came by the house yesterday,” Adrian confessed, because that’s what you did when you were staring down the barrel of Thomas Patrick Egan’s stone-faced anger. “A-And LaKeisha did come to me for advice after Detective Rodriguez pulled that stunt with Cash.”

“Why would she go to you?”

“You got short term memory loss or something? I was in the same position as her, minus the kid factor, not so long ago,” Adrian had a certain insight and knowledge that proved useful to someone in LaKeisha’s position. “She was terrified. She needed to talk to someone who understood.”

“And you were going to tell me about all this?”

“Of course I was,” At some point in the near future it was a conversation he’d planned to have. “We didn’t want you to worry or send you on a murderous rampage.”

“Murderous rampage?” Tommy scoffed. “Please. You think I’d do that?”

“Don’t play coy and pretend your first instinct isn’t to hurt someone who’s done you wrong,” Adrian hated hearing that lie tumble out of Deran’s mouth, and liked it a hell of a lot less coming from his brother. “You going to stand there and tell me that after you found out what went down, you didn’t go out looking for blood?”

“You been talking to Ghost?”

“No, I’ve just known you my whole life,” Violence was the go-to answer for the majority of the men in Adrian’s life. “It just would’ve made things worse.”

“So people keep telling me,” Tommy griped, pacing the length of the living room. “LaKeisha said that Blanca Rodriguez bitch backed off, gave Cash back, as soon as she asked for a lawyer. That right?”

“Yeah,” Sure, if they were ignoring the cooperation agreement LaKeisha signed. “I, um, I did tell ‘Keisha that maybe she and Cash should take a vacation until things cool off.”

“Nah, they don’t need to do that, I’m gonna take care of these asshole cops,” Tommy vowed, balling his hands into fists at his sides. “Speaking of asshole cops, Pearce came to see me today.”

“Is he still alive or at least in the same condition he was in when he found you?”

“Only ‘cause Cash was nearby when he cornered me,” Tommy quipped, sprawling out beside Adrian on the sofa. “He tried to compare me, ‘Keisha, and Cash to your boy’s adopted brother and his family, like we were gonna repeat their history, end up the way they did.”

“Bullshit.” Adrian couldn’t deny there were similarities between their families, but his family wasn’t run by a puppeteer that was instrumental in the Blackwells downfall. “Things went wrong with them, the whole family really, because Smurf was obsessed with being in control and being the only person in her sons’ lives that they loved and were loyal to. She wouldn’t even let them bond with each other because she thought they would join forces to over throw her or something. If they started getting close each other, she’d find a way to pit them against each other.”

“If you’re trying to make me feel sorry for your boyfriend and his bros by telling me how fucked up their mom was, it’s kind of working,” Tommy scowled, annoyed with himself. “Bitch sounds like a real piece of work.”

“We don’t have someone like that in our family. Smurf, she would con her sons into killing someone close to them, simply because they were close to them—that’s what happened to Baz’s wife,” There was not one person in their family that was so insecure of their place in it that they would go to such lengths to eliminate someone they believed was intruding on their territory. “I mean, yeah, Jamie manipulated you into killing your father, but it was because your dad was giving the feds information on him, it’s not really the same thing. Jamie had proof Teresi was selling him out. When Smurf told Pope that Baz’s wife was talking to the cops, she knew Cath hadn’t said anything.”

“Just like she knew you hadn’t said anything when she tried to sic her boys on you ,” Tommy murmured, clenching his eyes shut as he struggled to keep a lid on his temper. “You know, the Codys weren’t the only ones Pearce mentioned to me. He brought up Julio too.”

“Yeah?”

“You ever tell Deran about him?”

“No,” While Julio had known about Deran, that information sharing didn’t go both ways, for obvious reasons. “Deran still thought he was straight when Julio and me were…. And Deran and me were only friends then, we hadn’t… But Deran didn’t like me having friends outside him. If he knew about Julio, well, I guess everything that happened with Dave paints a clear picture of what would have happened. Exception being…”

“Julio would have killed Deran or whichever brother Deran sent after him,” Tommy remarked, confident in his deceased friend’s ability to defend himself. “You might want to fill Deran in on how it was with you and Julio.”

“Julio’s dead,” Adrian carried the weight of that loss with him every goddamn day, and it never got any easier to live with. “I don’t owe Deran that part of my life.”

“I’m not saying you do, but if you don’t tell him, Pearce will,” Tommy warned as he took his vibrating phone out of his pocket and checked the caller I.D. “Fuck. It’s Ghost.”

“Take it.”

“It’ll only be a minute,” Tommy promised, accepting the call and pressing the phone to his ear. “What, Ghost? .... What? .... That’s a different tune than what you were singing earlier. What changed? …. That motherfucker did what? .... I fucking told you, Ghost, this Saxe prick needs to be put down! …. You got an address for him? …. All right. I’ll meet you there.”

“So,” Adrian stood from the couch and made his way to the kitchen, snagging his brother’s keys off the counter. “What did Saxe do now?”

“Paid Tariq a visit at school today,” Tommy snarled, rocketing off the couch with bloodlust in his eyes. “Ghost and me gotta go handle this.”

“I don’t need the details,” The less Adrian knew about it the better. “Just be smart. He’s a federal prosecutor.”

“We always smart about this kind of thing,” Tommy assured him as he pulled on his jacket. “Hey, why don’t you take your worst half and go back to the house to keep LaKeisha busy?”

“Why?”

“After I do this thing with Ghost, I gotta pick up Cash from basketball practice,” Tommy replied, shoving his cellphone back into his pocket. “Then we’re gonna go pick out an engagement ring so I can propose to ‘Keisha tonight.”

“So it’s murder for dinner and ring shopping for dessert, huh?”

“You know I like to keep life interesting,” Tommy threw him a shit-eating grin. “Keys.”

“I just hope your midnight snack’s not an arrest warrant.” Adrian deadpanned, tossing his brother’s key to him. “Might put a crimp in the wedding planning.”

“Are you trying to fucking jinx me or is that your way of telling me to be careful?”

“What do you think?”

“Love you too, little brother.”

* * *

Smurf had tasked Pope to kill witnesses and informants more than once in his life, Cath, her parents, Adrian, a handful of others over the years. It wasn’t until he’d buried Cath in the desert that he’d begun to question her motives and wonder if the people he’d put in the ground actually deserved to be there. By the time she’d ordered him to put a bullet through Adrian’s heart and leave him in Deran’s bed for his brother to find, he’d come to realize she as full of shit.

Dave was different, he was only guilty now because he’d been innocent when Deran had sent Pope after him. The guy hadn’t done anything to their family, all he’d been guilty of in the beginning was going on a date with the wrong person. Pope didn’t feel good about what he had to do him, but he would do it to protect Deran.

“_If you called to tell me to make peace with Craig again, I’ll do it when I get home after I kick his ass for all the bullshit he’s been sending Adrian.”_

“You don’t need to come home yet, Deran,” The best place for his little brother was as far away from southern California as he could get for the next few days. “You should spend some more time there.”

“_Why?”_

“This problem isn’t going anywhere,” Not as far as his little brother knew, anyway. “Give yourself a couple more days.”

“_Draw out the inevitable?”_

“There are all kinds of things that can go wrong here, Deran,” That was a good part of the reason Pope was going to handle things himself. “You can end up in prison if this doesn’t go exactly as planned. You should take a few days, spend some time with Adrian, then come home, spend a few days with us and get your affairs in order.”

“_Do you want the house?”_

“What?”

“_Adrian and I talked about it and we think you should move into the house. We’re not gonna need it anymore.”_

“Oh, uh, okay,” Pope liked the place, it would look nice with a new paint job, but his brother was going to need some place to come home to when he realized he didn’t have to leave. “I’ll think about it.”

“_You and Craig can keep the bar for yourselves, run it together, or sell it.”_

“Deran, we don’t need to talk about this right now,” Pope couldn’t stand to listen to his brother give away pieces of his life. “We can talk about all that when you get home.”

“_Thanks, Pope.”_

“For what?”

“_For not trying to talk me out of leaving. You were good about it last time and that hasn’t changed. I’m just… I’m glad I’ve got one brother on my side.”_

“Craig will come around,” Pope lied, knowing full well Craig hadn’t matured enough for that yet. “We’ve just lost a lot these last few years.”

“_I get that. It sucks to leave you guys, but I deserve this. I’m allowed this. I’m allowed to have a life outside of the family. I’m tired of trying to justify that to someone like Craig who’s gotten everything he’s ever wanted because of an accident in the sack.”_

“Craig will understand eventually,” If he didn’t, that was his own fault, they couldn’t force him to accept things for how they were going to be. “You have to be patient with him.”

“_I’ve been patient with him my whole life.”_

“Deran.”

“_And whatever shit you guys are pulling behind my back that sparked this sudden generosity of letting me stay out here a few more days, it’s not gonna change anything.”_

“What’s that mean?”

“_Adrian and me are leaving no matter how this Dave shit goes down or who takes the fall. As soon as it’s settled, however it’s settled, we’re gone, either as free men or fugitives.”_

“Does Adrian know this?” While Adrian was willing to leave, Pope hadn’t gotten the impression that he actually wanted to go. “Or is that a decision you’re making for him?”

“_What the fuck do you care?”_

“I just want to know where your heads at, Deran,” It seemed to be in the same mindset it was always in, teetering on the brink of rationality while being unable to grasp it. “Why do you think we’re pulling something behind your back?”

“_We’re Smurf’s sons. It’s what we do. Don’t tell me what it is, okay? I don’t want to know anything I’d have to lie to Adrian about.”_

“Okay.”

* * *

Pearce had been read the riot act by his boss on more than one occasion for getting too invested in a case or chasing a dead lead for too long. Being chastised by someone else’s boss made him feel a bit like a kid that’d been called into the principal’s office.

“I told you that I wasn’t going to help you chase your tail. I ordered you to return to California. You chose to not only stay in my district, but to team up with Cooper fucking Saxe,” Warner stared down his nose at Pearce like he was bug that needed to be squashed. “Proving that you are, in fact, the West Coast Saxe, just as suspected.”

“I’m not,” He didn’t find Saxe to be as bad as Warner led him to believe, but he doubted that would do little to change Warner’s opinion of him. “With Saxe and Detective Rodriguez’s assistance, I have a new lead, a local murder that went unsolved. If I can connect the case to Deran Cody, I could close it and prove what happened to David Trager was not an isolated incident. I just need the body of Julio Romano exhumed and access to the evidence box.”

“Oh, is that all?” Warner muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Look, Pearce, I get it, you’ve been after the Cody family, Janine Cody specifically, since before some of her children were even born. It was probably fun for you, the thrill of the chase and all that, until she died before you could get a conviction. Now you’ve shifted your obsession to her sons, Deran particularly, because you see his partner as a weak link, but it’s not a fun chase anymore, it’s focused, but not on anything tangible.”

“I’m not obsessed—“

“Your hunt for Janine Cody was like a game to you. I’d wager you weren’t even that bothered when she walked on that murder charge,” Warner snorted, shaking his head. “Janine’s gone and her boys don’t want to play with you. Irritating, isn’t it?”

“Them or you?”

“You’ve been working the Codys too long, Pearce. Pass it on to a pair of fresh eyes before you destroy what’s left of your career,” Warner implored him. “But you’re not going to do that, so this is what I’m going to do. I’ll make some calls and get you access to the evidence in the death of this Julio Romano character on one condition, you leave when it confirms you’re just grasping at straws.”

“I’ll leave if nothing turns up,” He couldn’t promise that, but only because he didn’t intend to find nothing. “What about the exhumation?”

“You’re not desecrating a man’s body for what’s nothing more than a wild goose chase at this point. You find something in the evidence and we’ll talk,” Warner huffed as a knock sounded on the door to his office. “Come in!”

“Warner,” Blanca stepped into the office holding an evidence bag with a tumbler sealed inside. “Got a present for you.”

“It’s not my birthday or anything,” Warner played along. “What is it and how is it relevant to our current caseload?”

“I revisited the Raymond Jones case—“

“I said _**current**_ caseload, Detective Rodriguez,” Warner grumbled, sitting down at his desk. “You closed the Raymond Jones case long before you joined this task force. I don’t care if he is the one who killed James St. Patricks’ daughter. It is not—“

“Turns out, the CSIs found a blood drop at Jones’ flop. No known match at the time,” Blanca rallied on, speaking over Warner’s protests. “I did a little investigative work.”

“You did your job a year after the fact?” Warner’s eyes widened comically. “Tremendous. Would you like a commendation for getting things done in such a timely fashion?”

“It’s a 50% match to James St. Patrick,” Blanca continued, setting the evidence bag on the desk. “It’s his son, Tariq.”

“This glass is where you acquired St. Patrick’s DNA?” Warner examined the tumbler through the bag. “How did you get it?”

“I paid him a visit at his club this evening. He enjoyed a drink while accusing me of harassment,” Blanca rolled her eyes. “He walked out to attend to other business, left the glass on the bar in plain view.”

“So naturally you took it,” Warner inhaled a deep, calming breath. “You didn’t have a warrant, did you?”

“I didn’t need one,” Blanca claimed. “The nightclub open to the public.”

“You were in his place of business during what I’m guessing were off hours, when it was_** closed**_,” Warner barked, patience wearing thin. “It amazes me how St. Patrick and Egan have managed to evade prosecution as long as they have with you and Cooper Saxe leading the charge.”

“LaKeisha Grant is coming in tonight with information on Tommy Egan,” Like a professional, Blanca ignored the cheap shot and continued on undeterred. “She just so happened to be Tariq’s alibi the night Jones was killed.”

“That’s more than coincidental,” Pearce chimed in. “What made you look into a case you’d already closed, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Well, that’s the other thing,” Blanca steeled herself, as if preparing for another verbal assault from her boss. “The tip came from Andre Coleman, who has a very interesting story about how Saxe pressured him for information.”

“Goddamn it, Saxe,” Warner groaned, looking a second away from smacking his head against the desk. “Do I want to know? No. No. I don’t_** want **_to know. I need to know.”

“He essentially kidnapped Dre’s young daughter, Heaven Coleman, and kept her in foster care, out her family’s reach and off the record, until Dre gave him the information he was looking for. He kept moving the goal post, playing keep away with the toddler to milk Dre for all he was worth,” Blanca revealed, setting a document on the desk next to the evidence bag. “Coleman’s filed a formal complaint, and Saxe is outside with a crazy story of his own about James St. Patrick and Tommy Egan trying to kill him.”

“Saxe!” Warner yelled at the top of his lungs, voice echoing through the office. “Get in here!”

“Sir?” Saxe stumbled in to the room, appearing flushed and flustered. “I’m glad you asked for me. I need to talk to you about St. Patrick—“

“Sit down.” Warner instructed the other man who obediently sank into an open chair. “Everyone else stay exactly where you are. I want everyone to witness the consequences of being a complete and total fuck up.”

“Okay, listen, listen. I-I know I did some fucked up shit with Coleman, but at the end of the day, you’ll see it was worth it,” Saxe held his hands in the air defensively as he tried, pathetically, to plead his case. “Okay, Tommy Egan killed Valdes. Those words came from Tommy’s own mouth.”

“Tommy Egan confessed?” Warner blinked, unimpressed. “Bullshit.”

“I have to agree,” Pearce put in his two cents. “I spoke to Egan this afternoon. He’s cocky enough to think he can do whatever he wants and get away with it, but he knows better than actually confess to anything outright.”

“He did, right to my face,” Saxe pointed to the bruise forming on his forehead. “He and James St. Patrick broke into my place. They pistol-whipped me, zip-tied me to a chair, suffocated me with a plastic bag, and put a fucking gun to my mouth. The only reason they let me live was because they want me to be their mole in this office. I-I thought I was going to die.”

“We should be so lucky,” Warner mumbled under his breath. “You’re fired, Saxe.”

“Wait, uh,” Saxe snapped his finger as he tried to think of something, anything, that would allow him to keep his job for just a little longer. “LaKeisha Grant! Bring her in. She’s about to crumble like a sandcastle.”

“She’s already on the books, and if she corroborates your theory, I’ll be happy to apologize, but you’re still fired,” Warner dismissed the prosecutor that had caused him so much grief. “If St. Patrick and Egan are really who you think they are, there’s no fucking way you’d still be breathing.”

“If we’re done here, I’d like to pay Tasha St. Patrick a visit,” Blanca announced, retrieving the evidence bag off the desk. “Rattle her cage a bit about Tariq and LaKeisha Grant, see if I can spook her into talking.”

“Tread carefully,” Warner advised the detective. “We finally have someone willing to cooperate, try not to get her killed by giving away too much to the people we want her to testify against. What I’m trying to say is, don’t be Saxe.”

“I’ll watch what I say.”

“As for you, Detective Pearce,” Warner addressed him with a combination of boredom and irritation. “If you’ll leave your information with my assistant, I’ll have that evidence box sent to your hotel room, but it is your responsibility to return it to the precinct it belongs to when you’re finished with it. Unless you find something definitive, I do not – and I cannot stress this enough – I do not want to see you in this office or in the building ever again. Do I make myself clear?”

"Yes.”

“Fantastic.”

* * *

The thing about dating a single mom was that you had to keep their kid in mind when making any big, life changing decisions that could affect them all. Tommy’s one mistake when buying the house was his failure to consult ‘Keisha and Cash on the decision, not that either of them seemed to mind. A wedding proposal wasn’t a house, it wasn’t something he could do on a whim or without his future stepson’s approval or input.

“Which one do you think your mother would like?” Tommy asked the boy as they leaned over the jewelry store counter to admire the rings in the display case. “I ain’t no good at this stuff.”

“Hmm,” Cash considered the options, settling on a pear cut diamond with a white gold band. “Probably this one.”

“Good choice,” The sales woman praised, taking the ring from the case and handing it to Tommy for a closer inspection.

“Now, Cash, if I give this ring to your mother, that means the three of us is gonna be family,” In Tommy’s mind, they were already a family, ‘Keisha was his wife, Cash his son, the ring and ceremony were just to make it official. “You a’ight with that?”

“Yeah,” Cash smiled shyly. “Do, um, do you think you and Mom will, I don’t know, have kids?”

“Oh, uh, I don’t know,” Tommy would love to have babies with LaKeisha, but it wasn’t something they’d ever discussed. “Is that something you’d be cool with?”

“A little brother or sister would be cool,” Cash grinned. “I’m old enough to help take of them, babysit or change diapers. I could even teach ‘em how to play basketball when they learn to walk.”

“Yeah, you could, buddy,” Tommy wouldn’t mind that, filling that big house with some rugrats. “We’ll have to talk to your mom about it.”

“Do you like being a big brother?” The boy asked curiously. “You seem to like it. You don’t get annoyed or mad when you talk about your brother and sister.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I like it. They’ve always been good kids. We’ve always gotten along,” The age difference probably had a little something to do with it. “Don’t get me wrong, they can be pains, but at the end of the day, I know they’ve always got my back. They’re always going to have your back too, ‘cause we’re family now.”

“They live in California, right? By the beach?” Cash bounced on the balls of his feet. “Do they know how to surf?”

“Hell yeah,” They had both learned as small children, although Jess hadn’t developed the same passion for the sport as their little brother. “Why? You want to learn?”

“Yeah, kinda,” Cash nodded enthusiastically. “It looks fun.”

“We’ll have to take a trip out west next summer,” With any luck, shit will have settled down by then. “Your mom and me can chill on the beach while your new aunt and uncle teach you and your cousin Charlie how to ride the waves. It could be our first real family vacation.”

“That’d be awesome!”

“Yeah? Well, we gotta get this wedding stuff done first,” They had the ring all picked out and ready for purchase, all that was left to do was put the finishing touches on the proposal. “Hey, Cash, what do you say we pick up some flowers, kick Adrian and Deran out of the house, and then you and me propose to your mom together? How’s that sound?”

“I like that idea.”

“Let’s do it then.”

* * *

In the days or weeks, even hours, leading up to one fleeing the country it was important to keep up appearances. Everything had to be nice and normal up until the moment your feet hit the ground on foreign soil and you were clear of whatever it is you were fleeing from. Adrian had accepted that, LaKeisha had as well, others, on the other hand, struggled with the concept, even when they weren’t the ones doing the fleeing.

“As soon as ‘Keisha’s on that boat, we’re going to be lugging all this crap right back out to the truck,” Deran complained, hauling a box into what was supposed to be a guest room on the second floor. “How do three people who lived in apartments even accumulate enough shit to fill a house this size?”

“Probably the same way you did: the internet,” Adrian retorted as he unpacked plastic storage tub on the dresser. “You’re not the first person to develop an online shopping addiction after moving into a bigger place.”

“I don’t have a shopping addiction,” Deran scowled. “Everything I bought for the house was something we needed.”

“I had a perfectly good mop until you tossed it out and dropped a couple hundred bucks on one of those robotic ones,” Adrian had a permanent bruise on big toe from how often he’d tripped over the stupid thing. “You were nesting, it’s okay, I get it.”

“Wasn’t nesting,” Deran grumbled, giving the Adrian the finger. “And I meant what I said, moving this crap in here and unpacking it is pointless. You brother’s not gonna stay here without LaKeisha and the kid.”

“The day before we were set to leave Oceanside, I thought it was pointless for us buy groceries that were just going to rot in the fridge, but we still did it,” Hindsight, those groceries might’ve been a red flag Adrian had elected to ignore at the time. “If we broke our usual routine, people might get suspicious—those are your words.”

“The feds think they’ve got LaKeisha on their side, they’re not going to be watching her,” Deran commented, kicking boxes aside. “This dog and pony show is for your brother, who already knows what’s going on.”

“He doesn’t know about the cooperation agreement or that Rodriguez had WITSEC expedited,” Adrian and ‘Keisha had avoided sharing anything with Tommy that would set him on a warpath. “That agreement is why she has to go, that and that threat to her son. The agreement doesn’t mean anything unless she says something, but the feds can still use it to make it seem like she’s talking. If they tell the wrong person she gave them information and they use that agreement as proof…”

“Right, right, I get it,” Deran sighed, scrubbing a hand down his face. “Your brother is out buying an engagement ring for this woman, Adrian. He bought this house for their family last week, and that family is going to be gone tomorrow. We’re all stringing him along; even I recognize that’s a dick move.”

“It’s fucked up, I know,” About as fucked up as someone promising to start a new life with the person they claimed to care about, then backing out at the last minute—not that Adrian was still bitter about it. “If he knew about the agreement, on top of what the cops tried with Cash, there’d be a trail of dead feds leading right to this doorstep.”

“You think he’s going to react any differently once realizes his fiancé and kid are gone?”

“He will when I explain everything to him, tell him they’re safe and he can join them when they get settled,” Tommy wouldn’t choose to leave as his first option, even if it was the safest, he had too much pride to run. “If he knew the plan was for them to leave, he’d try to fix things first, draw it out until it was too late for anyone to go anywhere. If LaKeisha and Cash go first, he will follow them out.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“He loves her.”

“I love you,” Deran grunted, crossing his arms over his chest. “I didn’t go with you the first time.”

“Tommy’s not like you,” Adrian was grateful for that, took solace in it even. “It’s not just his feelings for her. It’s his protective instincts. He needs to keep her and Cash safe, to take care of them, it’s not something he can turn off. He’s gonna go wherever they are so he can do that, so he can protect them.”

“You saying I don’t have protective instincts toward you?”

“What? No.”

“I’m protective as hell.”

“I never said you wer—” Adrian’s mouth snapped shut as a sudden crack broke through the air without warning, jolting them both. “What the fu….”

“That was a gunshot.”

“’Keisha.”

Adrian dashed out of the room, bolting down the hallway with Deran on his heels hissing something about neither of being armed.

“_Please! What about Cash?!”_ LaKeisha’s pained and panic laden voice became audible as they bounded down the staircase. _“Please, don’t do this! Please! Please!”_

“_I’m sorry.”_

The second voice and accompanying gunshot slowed Adrian’s gait, his legs felt like lead weights as he descended the final steps. Deran was at his side, trying uselessly to stop him, to push Adrian behind him as they crossed to the foyer the living room where LaKeisha’s body was lying on the floor, blood pooling from the wound on her abdomen and the single hole in her head.

“Oh god.” Adrian’s gaze gravitated to the gun aimed at ‘Keisha’s still form, watching as it was turned on Deran and himself.

“Adrian,” Deran tugged at his arms, yanking him toward the front door. “Come on.”

Adrian tracked the gun from the finger on the trigger to the sleeve covering the murderer’s arm, up to the neatly pulled back hair, and finally to the perpetrators face where any hope of being mistaken about the second voice was truly dashed.

“Tasha.”

“I’m sorry.”


	9. Run Against the Tide

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd.  
Chapter title comes from: [Eye in the Sky by Carla Werner](https://soundcloud.com/carla-werner/eye-in-the-sky-written-for-the-screen)  
Gif sets: [The Shooter](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/190680117747/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-the-shooter-if-i-find-out), [None of Us Left](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/190956254686/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-none-of-us-are-left-its)
> 
> Set during Power 6x09 Scorched Earth

If there was a proper reaction to finding your girlfriend dead on your living room floor, Tommy had never heard of it. He had fallen to his knees at her side, letting the engagement ring clatter to the hardwood floor. He barely registered his brother or Deran covered in blood at the foot of the stairs, he heard nothing but his own pulse pounding in his ears until the sound of Cash’s footsteps managed to filter in.

The overwhelming need to protect the boy from the trauma of seeing his mother’s body tore Tommy from his state of shock. He rushed out of the door, blocking the kid from seeing something would stay with him for the rest of his life. He ushered Cash back to the car, calling 911 for Adrian and Deran as he went.

He couldn’t afford to get questioned by the cops with Cash in the car, so he waited down the block for the ambulance to arrive, staying put until he was certain his brother had been loaded in and was well on his way to the hospital. Once the wounded had been taken away, Tommy had driven into the city to Cash’s father’s house, biding time in the car until the sun was peaking over the horizon. Cash had fallen asleep and had to be carried into Kadeem’s place by the time Tommy could work up the nerve to knock on the door.

LaKeisha’s ex had been shocked and saddened by the news of her murder, but grateful to have his son close. Cash’s father had been ready to join the fight, to help Tommy find and dispose of the person who had just cut a beloved member of his family down. Tommy promised to give him a call when retaliation needed to land, but he knew it was a lie, he was sure Kadeem did to, there was no way he was going to risk making Cash an orphan by putting the only parent he had left in the crosshairs. Tommy left the house without a goodbye to his stepson or knowing if he would ever see him again.

All he wanted to do was get to the hospital and check in on his brother, to be reassured by the doctors that he wouldn’t be losing another person he cared for to a senseless act of violence. The only thing keeping him from his brother was a bitch with a badge standing next to his car.

“Thomas Patrick Egan,” Detective Blanca Rodriguez greeted him with cold indifference. “You’re a busy man.”

“This better be quick,” The last thing Tommy was in the mood for was some round and round with the cops. “I got shit to do.”

“Like running drugs, racketeering? Murdering your girlfriend?” Blanca paused, gauging his response to her bluntness. “You see, now, typically when an innocent man learns his girlfriend was murdered, he has more of an emotional reaction.”

“Yeah,” When he’d _**learned **_she was dead, he had a very emotional fucking reaction. “I found her body myself. I found her and my brother. I’m the one who called it in.”

“But you didn’t stick around,” Blanca noted disapprovingly. “Where were you last night between the hours of 6:00 and 7:00pm?”

“Buying an engagement ring for LaKeisha at the mall. Her son, Cash, was with me,” If he’d had any idea what would happen at his house, he would have been there to protect his family. “Check the cameras. Check the GPS on my phone while you’re at it, I called my brother from there.”

“I will,” The detective promised. “Where’s Cash now?”

“He’s with his father,” Where he belonged now that his mother was gone. “Don’t you fuck with that kid.”

“He told you, right?” Blanca questioned with a tilt of her head. “That we pulled over his mom and she agreed to cooperate with us, to testify against you.”

“Nah. She told me what you done to her, but she wasn’t gonna to say shit against me,” Tommy had no reason to kill her or hurt his brother, for that matter. “LaKeisha was my girl to the end.”

“Well, if you didn’t kill LaKeisha, then who else wanted to keep her quiet?” Blanca asked, stepping into Tommy’s space. “She was the target, the only one with a kill shot to the head. Your brother and Deran Cody were collateral damage. Whoever fired that gun was after LaKeisha. Who was it?”

“I’ll tell you what, genius,” Tommy got in her face. “You do your fuckin’ job, you’ll find your answer.”

“LaKeisha Grant is dead. Your brother and his boyfriend are in critical condition,” Blanca laid out the facts, the damage dealt to his family. “I’m just trying to figure out what happened. A decent human being would want that too.”

“Someone came into my home and shot the place up,” An evil son of a bitch had turned his safe haven into a goddamn bloodbath. “That’s what happened.”

“Did your brother give you any indication of who the shooter was before the ambulance arrived?”

“He was a little busy trying to keep his boyfriend from bleeding out,” Deran had been face down on the floor, bleeding profusely from his upper back, but still tried to return the favor, pressing his hands against the closest wound on Adrian that he could reach. “They weren’t doing much talking.”

“You don’t have any idea who could have done it?” Blanca continued to pry for answers he didn’t have. “Has anyone threatened LaKeisha or your brother recently?”

“Only you and that asshole cop out of California. Maybe one of you motherfuckers did it,” It didn’t escape him that she was asking about threats regarding his brother when she was so sure LaKeisha was the target. “If I find out one of you had something to do with it, there’s not a prison in the world you could lock me up in that would keep me from getting to you.”

“Not a great idea to threaten a member of law enforcement, Mr. Egan,” She said, but her lack of denial spoke volumes. “If you know who killed LaKeisha and shot your brother and Mr. Cody, let me handle it. Don’t seek revenge. You’re only going to wind up hurting yourself.”

“Am I free to go?”

“I’ll be watching you.”

* * *

It was the pressure he felt first, deep and intense, radiating from his left shoulder and his rib cage. Adrian gripped weakly at joint of his arm, feeling the bandage covering the wound there.

“Stop it,” His mother’s brash voice cut into his consciousness as her hands swatted his away from his injury. “You fuck with your stitches, Nurse Ratched is gonna throw a fit.”

“Mmm,” Adrian licked his dry lips and peeled his eyes open, wincing at the bright overhead lights. “T-Tom-Tommy?”

“He took the kid to his father,” Kate caressed her fingers through his hair, nails massaging his scalp. “He’ll be here soon.”

“Deran?” Adrian grunted, becoming more aware of his surroundings, the machines beeping, and the pull of the tape holding an IV in place in the crook of his arm. “Wh-Where’s D-Deran?”

“He’s in the room next door. He’s fine,” His mother assured him. “He’s a little worse off than you, had an extra bullet—“

“He tried to protect me,” Adrian recalled the way Deran had turned his back on the shooter and tried to shield him from the gunfire. “I-I have to see him. I need to see him.”

Adrian pushed is mother away and levered himself up, swinging his legs over the side of the hospital bed. Kate didn’t protest or try to stop him, she helped him remove the heart and oxygen monitors and various other wires as he climbed to his feet, using the IV stand to keep himself upright.

“Hey, watch your ass,” Kate warned, reaching behind him to adjust the hospital gown he wore. “Maybe your brother can bring you a pair of sweats or something.”

“Where’s Deran?” Adrian asked, flinching with every step he took out to the hall. “Left or right?”

“Right there,” His mother nudged him off to the right. “Just next door. He’s fine.”

“Need to see,” Adrian insisted, shuffling into the other room. “Have to tell him…”

Deran was alone in the hospital room, laid out on his left side on the bed, blankets pulled up past his shoulders. Adrian left his mother in the hallway and slowly made his way to the bed, mindful of his every footstep, not wanting to disturb the other man more than necessary.

“I’m so sorry,” Adrian leaned over Deran’s unconscious form and pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “I’m sorry this happened to you.”

“Hmm?” Deran mumbled groggily as he stirred. “A?”

“I’m right here,” He whispered against Deran’s skin, gripping his hand under the blanket. “I’m sorry. Y-You weren’t supposed to get hurt because of me, my family.”

“No,” Deran squeezed his hand lightly, but stubbornly kept his eyes closed. “Not you. H-Her.”

“You can’t say anything. When the police come to talk to you, you can’t tell them who did this,” Adrian hated what he was asking for, but if the roles were reversed, Deran would certainly do the same. “They’ll only make things worse. Do you understand?”

“Mm-hmm,” Deran managed a small nod of his head. “Won’t say anything.”

“Thank you,” Adrian placed another kiss, this time to his lips. “It’s gonna be made right, I promise. I’m sorry. Thank you.”

“Babe,” Kate called out to him, idling in the doorway. “Tasha’s here.”

“No!” Deran’s eyes flew open. “No.”

“It’s okay, ssh,” Adrian hushed him as he freed his hand from the bruising grip Deran had it in. “Nothing’s going to happen here. It’s okay.”

“What the hell’s that about?” Kate asked, hands on her hips. “What does he think Tasha of all people is gonna do? She’s your sister for fuck sake.”

“Nothing, Ma,” Adrian grumbled, wrapping the blanket tighter around Deran, making sure he was snug and comfortable. “Hey, will you stay with him until his brothers get here? I’m sure one of them is on their way.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Thanks,” Adrian combed his fingers through Deran’s hair and kissed his forehead. “I’ll be back soon.”

Adrian steeled himself as he returned to his own room, leaving Deran under his mother’s semi-watchful eye. Tasha had let herself in and was pacing the length of the room, fidgeting anxiously with the bracelet on her wrist. Adrian got back into bed, but said nothing by way of greeting, wasn’t quite sure what to say to her anyway.

“I’m…I’m glad you’re all right,” She started, crossing her arms over her chest. “I-I didn’t mean for… I just reacted.”

“When you shot at me and Deran, yeah,” He had watched that in real time, there was only a half a second between her seeing them and when she pulled the trigger, he doubted she had even registered who they were before the bullets started flying. “LaKeisha, though, that was premeditated.”

“No,” Tasha shook her head. “I only wanted to talk.”

“Putting a bullet in her head doesn’t constitute a conversation.”

“It was her gun, she went for it first,” Tasha claimed, knowing full well Adrian had no way of refuting it. “I just wanted to talk to her about the cops. S-She signed a cooperation agreement. She was going to tell them that Tariq wasn’t at the penthouse the night Ray Ray was killed.”

“LaKeisha signed that agreement because the cops were going to kidnap her son if she didn’t,” Adrian, for one, completely understood LaKeisha’s decision. “She was never going to give the cops anything. She was going to take Cash and leave. We were just waiting on the passports.”

“Leaving is just as good as an admission of guilt,” Tasha argued, anger coursing through her body. “They would have taken that to mean she was lying about seeing Tariq that night.”

“Why do you think the cops are looking into Ray Ray’s murder?” Adrian hadn’t heard a goddamn thing about that case since it was pinned on Kanan and closed. “The cops never said anything to her about Ray Ray. All they had was her involvement in cleaning Tommy’s money. They never mentioned Tariq to her at all.”

“No, no, they told me they had a witness saying Tariq wasn’t at the penthouse that night—“

“And you assumed it was LaKeisha.”

“Who else could it be?”

“It could’ve been the cops trying to get a reaction out of you,” It worked like a charm too, it seemed. “You are one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, so it’s hard for me to fathom how you could be so gullible.”

“She was going to leave, she had bags packed, I saw them,” Excuses fell from her lips at a rapid pace. “The cooperation agreement was sitting right there on the table.”

“Yes, she was going to leave to protect Cash and Tommy,” They’d been over that already, it wasn’t being called into question. “She wasn’t going to let them take her son or use her against Tommy. She was taking herself out of play to protect her family.”

“And throwing mine under the bus in the process,” Tasha sneered. “It doesn’t matter that they didn’t ask her about ‘Riq or Ray Ray’s murder. As soon as she was gone, they could have put Tariq’s alibi under a microscope and she wouldn’t have been here to confirm what she originally told them.”

“Maybe you should have gotten someone with less to lose to lie for you and ‘Riq that night,” There were dozens of people in and out of the penthouse that night paying their respects to Raina, any one of them could have been conned or blackmailed into being Tariq’s alibi. “She was supposed to sacrifice her son, Tommy, and her freedom, because you couldn’t keep your house in order?”

“You think this is my fault?”

“That LaKeisha’s dead? Absolutely,” That was not a fact that could be disputed. “Tariq killing Ray Ray? I think you and Jamie can split the blame there. The kid had just lost his twin sister, he shouldn’t have been left alone long enough to slip away, find out where the killer lived, and murder him. Someone should have been with him.”

“You don’t think I know that?” Tasha threw her hands in the air. “I wasn’t…I wasn’t present, mentally, okay? I was grieving for my daughter.”

“Now a little boy is grieving his mother,” Adrian had never been in that position, but it was safe to say it was a wound that would never heal. “And ‘Riq and Yas, you just orphaned them, you realize that, right? Tommy’s going to think Jamie did this, he’ll kill him before I have a chance to tell him otherwise. When he figures out it was you, he’s going to kill you too.”

“Y-You can’t tell him, Adrian,” Tasha pleaded with him. “Think about Yas and ‘Riq. They need me. Tommy can’t find out. He can’t know the truth.”

“I can’t lie to him,” His brother needed someone on his side now more than ever. “You’re right, your kids need you, you’re no use to them dead. The way I see it, you can turn yourself in – Tommy doesn’t have any female hitters in the prison – or, you can pack up the kids and leave, go somewhere Tommy will never find you.”

“Adrian,” Tasha murmured, fear clouding her features. “We’re family. I-I helped raise you.”

“You did, which is why I’m giving you ‘til the end of the day to decide,” He couldn’t give her any longer than that, it would put too many people at risk. “I love you, Tasha. I can forgive you for turning that gun on me, but LaKeisha and Deran, they didn’t deserve that. I c-can’t just let that go.”

“Adrian, I’m sorry.”

“I know you are.”

* * *

As much as he knew he should be there, Tommy couldn’t bring himself to go to the hospital as he’d planned after dropping off Cash. What good would he be there? He couldn’t offer any reassurances or promises of safety when the son of a bitch who shot up his brother and murdered his girl was still out there, calling Tommy’s phone at that very moment in fact.

“_Tommy, did you put the piece where I need to find it?”_ Ghost barked over the line, no ‘hello’ or ‘how are you’ or nothin’. _“Tommy, you there? Come on, man. I am getting Jason to the building I told you about. I wanna make sure you did your part of the deal.”_

“Yeah,” Tommy had done his part all right. “I put it where you told me.”

“_Okay, good. Make sure you avoid any calls with Jason in case he tries to pull you in a situation or something, you know? Tell little brother to do the same; don’t need Jason to bring him along for one of their chats while I’m trying to get this done.”_

“Adrian’s not going to be out meeting anyone for a while,” His baby brother was out of commission for the foreseeable future. “He was shot last night at my house. Docs removed two bullets from him.”

“_What? Is he okay? What happened?”_

“He’ll live,” Physically, it was likely the kid would heal without complication, but the psychological damage was yet to be seen. “I don’t know what happened; I haven’t had a chance to talk to him yet. You wouldn’t know anything about it, would you?”

“_No, Tommy. How the hell would I know anything?”_

“I don’t know,” Probably because he was the one that pulled the motherfucking trigger. “Just thought you might’ve heard something.”

“_No, but I’ll ask around.”_

“I appreciate that,” Tommy didn’t need to take the streets to turn over stones to know the truth. “I haven’t been able to get a hold of Tasha. You hear from her, tell her what’s going on with little brother, she’d want to know.”

“_Yeah, yeah, I’ll tell her. She’ll probably take the kids up to see him.”_

“He’d like that,” Spending time with their niece and nephew might be good for the kid. “You gonna head over to visit him?”

“_I will once this shit with Jason is settled. It’s all gonna be over real soon.”_

“Yeah, it is. I put the piece in the elevator box like you asked,” Tommy lied, glancing at the gun sitting on the passenger seat next to him. “It’s done.”

“_All right. Peace, brother._

“Peace, brother.”

* * *

Pope wasn’t the type to comfortably sit on his hands if his family was in danger. He couldn’t relax being sidelined while one of them was hurt, and he wasn’t the only older sibling who felt that way.

“Thanks for, uh, thanks for meeting me,” Jess said tightly as they sat together on the bench on the pier. “I wasn’t sure if you could, I thought you’d be halfway to New York by now.”

“Craig wanted to be the one,” They couldn’t both go, someone had to stay behind and hold down the fort. “Why aren’t you heading that way?”

“Tommy didn’t think it was safe,” Jess sighed, lines of stress marring her soft features. “Told me to get things ready here, he’s going to send Adrian home as soon as the doctors release him.”

“I was gonna go by the house later and clean up a bit,” There was no telling what kind of state Deran had left things in. “Get some groceries, do some laundry so they don’t have to worry about it when they get home.”

“You know, if they had left when they planned to, none of this would have happened.”

“I’m not the one who convinced Deran to stay,” On the contrary, Pope had given Deran his blessing to go. “He made that choice, just like Adrian made the choice to go to New York instead of Indonesia.”

“They’re never going to be happy here, Pope, not together or apart,” Jess acknowledged, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “It’s not the right place for them.”

“I know,” He could see that way back when they were little kids trying to escape the invisible boundaries their families had drawn around them. “They need to go. They should go.”

“If they stay, best case scenario, this place kills them, worst case, it destroys every bit of good they have left inside them and they kill each other or themselves,” Jess shuddered at the thought. “If they go, at least they’ll have a chance at finally being free, being who they want to be.”

“We have to let them go,” As much as it hurt to say goodbye to his baby brother, Pope was prepared to do it if it meant Deran could finally find some peace. “But Craig’s not ready.”

“Yeah, well, you have to get him ready,” Jess retorted, as if it were such a simple task. “He’s an adult. He’s a goddamn father. It’s time for him to stop acting like a child whose favorite toy is being given to charity.”

“I don’t know if you noticed, but we’ve lost a lot these last two years,” Two siblings, a sister-in-law, and their mother had all been put in the ground in a short period of time. “It’s not easy to let go of another member of our family.”

“With all due respect to your losses, Deran’s not dying, he’s just moving away,” Jess shut down the comparison of relocation to death. “You’ll see him again. He and Adrian aren’t going to vanish without a trace. They might even move back home one day when they’re ready.”

“They’re never moving back.”

“Probably not, no,” Jess agreed, a small grin playing on her lips. “But they’ll come around once in a while, and that’s gotta be enough for us. It’s gotta be enough for Craig.”

“I’ll talk to him,” He would find a way to make Craig understand it’s what was best for their baby brother. “Hey, uh, how’s your brother doing? I heard his girlfriend…”

“I don’t know. It’s hard to tell with him sometimes,” Jess shifted her gaze to the water. “Adrian and Jamie will take care of him, make sure he doesn’t get too out of control.”

“Yeah,” Pope hadn’t known the guy long, but he seemed like the type who would work out his grief through chaos and violence. “So, what now, we tell Deran and Adrian not to come home?”

“We just let them make their own decisions without interfering.”

“Easier said than done.”

“Don’t I know it.”

* * *

Adrian was under no illusion that Tasha was a threat to him or Deran, he didn’t believe she would return to finish them off or silence them. It was other threats he needed to be on alert for, and he couldn’t do that while hooked up to high doses of pain meds that made his head foggy. Of course, without the pain medication, he was left to curl up in the fetal position and suffer through the waves of pain in his shoulder and side, withering at times from the force of it – not a good look when the cops came knocking.

“You don’t look well, Adrian,” Pearce scrutinized him as he stepped into the room, Det. Rodriguez at his side and a file folder in his hands. “Do you need a nurse?”

“No,” Adrian grunted, forcing his body up into a sitting position. “What are you doing here?”

“I need a statement from you about what happened in your brother’s house last night,” Det. Rodriguez took control of the conversation. “Detective Pearce decided to tag along.”

“I have my own things to discuss with you,” Pearce mentioned, unwilling to be silenced by the likes of Blanca. “Once Detective Rodriguez is finished.”

“All right, Mr. Dolan,” Blanca flipped open her notepad, pen at the ready. “Why were you at your brother’s house last night?”

“Helping unpack,” It was a big house, lots of stuff to go through; they needed all the help they could get. “Tommy was shopping for engagement rings with Cash. LaKeisha couldn’t do it all by herself.”

“What happened prior to the shooting?” Blanca asked, tapping the pen against the pad. “Where were you in the house exactly?”

“I was upstairs, second floor, with Deran,” Adrian replied, eyes heavy and tired, barely focused. “We were putting the guest room together, unpacking the stuff LaKeisha wanted in there.”

“Just unpacking?” Blanca quirked a brow. “Nothing else?”

“We were talking.”

“About what?”

“Our relationship,” Adrian had been trying to discuss Tommy and ‘Keisha’s relationship, but Deran kept bringing things round to their own. “We ran downstairs after we heard the first shot.”

“There was no forced entry, LaKeisha let her killer in,” Blanca revealed, suspicion clear in her tone. “You didn’t hear anyone knock at the door? You didn’t hear an argument?”

“We didn’t hear anything until the first shot,” To be fair, they hadn’t been paying much attention to anything but each other, weren’t listening for anything or anyone else. “When we got to the stairs, I could hear LaKeisha.”

“Could you make out what she was saying?”

“She was talking about Cash, begging the shooter to think about him,” Adrian swallowed thickly, remembering the desperation in the woman’s voice in her final moments. “T-The second shot was fired before we even got down the steps, and then…I didn’t hear ‘Keisha again.”

“What did you see when you got down the stairs?”

“LaKeisha’s body on the floor, and the gun,” It was an image forever burned into his mind. “I saw the gun turn on Deran and myself. Deran tried to pull me away, but the, um, the person who killed LaKeisha just started shooting. They fired off a couple rounds, we ended up on the floor, and then they were gone.”

“Who was the shooter?” Blanca quit beating around the bush. “It had to be someone ‘Keisha knew, likely someone you know. You looked right at them—“

“I didn’t,” He really wished he hadn’t seen the killers face, but as it was, he could only feign ignorance. “My eyes were caught on the gun. I never saw the face. I never heard their voice. I only saw the gun.”

“I don’t believe you,” Blanca glowered at him. “LaKeisha was supposed to come in last night. She was going to give me information on Tommy and his organization in exchange for witness protection for she and her son, instead she’s killed. That’s not a coincidence.”

“LaKeisha was never going into WITSEC. She was going to talk to a lawyer and file a formal complaint against you,” It was a half lie, but it was still more truth than the shit she was spewing. “You threatened to kidnap her son if she didn’t sign the cooperation agreement and perjure herself on the stand for you.”

“That’s not true—“

“Why don’t we ask Cash what happened when you pulled them over yesterday,” Adrian challenged her to put both their stories to the test. “He can tell your boss how you forced him into the back of a patrol car while his mother cried, tell ‘em that you wouldn’t let him go until ‘Keisha signed your little paper. Do you want to do that?”

“Okay, I think it’s my turn now,” Pearce cleared his throat, flashing Blanca an apologetic smile as he took the reins. “Let’s shift gears, Adrian.”

“Fine,” Adrian huffed, wiping beads of sweat from his brow as pain pulsed through his body. “What do you want?”

“Dave Trager is dead,” Pearce dropped the bomb brusquely. “His body was discovered this morning in the water, trapped between some rocks beneath the bluffs where he likes to run. The detective on the case said it appears to be an accident, but I think you and I know better.”

“What?” Adrian faltered, taken aback by the new information. “Dave’s... Dave’s dead?”

“You’re a bit of a bad omen, aren’t you? The men you date don’t fare well,” Pearce snickered, completely unsympathetic to Adrian or the plight of the men in his life. “Dave’s dead. Julio’s dead. Deran, well, he stood too close to you and wound up with three bullets in him.”

“Yeah, I get it,” He didn’t need a play-by-play of the slow demise of his past lovers. “I don’t know anything about what happened to Dave.”

“Well, I’m not here about Dave; I just thought I’d give you the notification. Although, I’m sure we’ll be having a long talk about his murder soon enough,” Pearce moved to stand at the foot of the bed, towering over Adrian’s injured form. “This is about Julio Romano and the hair I found in his evidence box that belongs to Deran Cody. The previous investigator didn’t spend much time on the case, the hair was left untested until came across it.”

“And you matched it to Deran,” Awfully convenient and completely impossible. “I guess you’ve got your man. Why are you in here with me instead of slapping the cuffs on him?”

“You don’t believe me?” Pearce scowled at him. “Would you like to see the report?”

“I would if you had one, but you only started making noise about Julio yesterday, and it takes a lot longer than a night to get a DNA test back,” This wasn’t CSI, things didn’t happen in an instant it took weeks, sometime even months. “What else you got?”

“I am in the process of exhuming Julio’s body—“

“Julio was cremated and his ashes were spread in the birthplace of his grandparents,” Adrian had personally taken the remains to Cuba, at the request of Julio’s father, during a break in the first leg of the surf circuit. “If you don’t have anything credible—“

“Julio Romano’s murder is unsolved. Deran has a history of trying to eliminate the people who get close to you, such as when he sent his brother after Dave,” Pearce reiterated the facts of a case unrelated to Julio, and, officially, nothing more than unsubstantiated allegations. “Your relationship with Julio Romano was far more serious than casually dating Dave or living with Deran.”

“That depends on how you look at it,” Things weren’t always as simple as they appeared on paper. “What’s your point?”

“I would think that the murder of someone you vowed to share your life with would shake your loyalty to someone who very likely murdered him,” Pearce narrowed his eyes. “Deran has motive, a history of increasingly violent behavior toward you and your romantic partners—“

“Deran had no reason to hurt Julio. He never met Julio. He never knew Julio and I were together. I never spoke Julio’s name in Deran’s presence,” Adrian had chosen every word with painstaking precision when telling Deran about his time in New York to avoid any mention of Julio. “Do you even have proof Deran was in New York at the time of Julio’s murder?”

“I’m looking into it,” Pearce asserted. “Using facial recognition on old security footage from the airports and toll booths. I think it’s safe to say he would have used an alias if he was coming out here to commit a crime.”

“If you put half as much effort into trying to nail the Codys for crimes they’ve actually committed as you do the ones you know for certain that they haven’t, you would’ve had convictions on them years ago.” The Codys heists weren’t a well kept secret, the lack of evidence left behind was the only reason they’d never been arrested. “’Cause, you know, this whole stalking them across the country and trying to pull a case out of thin air just makes you look incompetent and unhinged.”

“Yeah, I think we’re done here,” Blanca dropped a hand on Pearce’s shoulder, as if she thought she might have to restrain him. “Let’s go see what the Cody kid has to say.”

“You do that.”

* * *

In his travels, Craig tended to move north or south of Oceanside, never straying too far from home. He’d never been to New York, never imagined his first time would be at the urging of the hospital treating his brother after he’d been shot, for that reason alone he decided he didn’t like the place much. Arriving at the hospital to be told he couldn’t see his brother just yet only made him hate the city more.

“This is bullshit,” He took his frustrations out on the nurse at the receptions desk. “You assholes called me, told me my brother had been shot and I needed to get here right away, I flew all night to get here, and now you’re telling me I can’t see him?”

“The police asked for privacy while they spoke to him,” The nurse kept her cool, well versed in dealing with anxious family members. “I’m sorry, Mr. Cody, you’re going to have to wait.”

“Cody?” A man baring a strange resemblance to Adrian sidled up next to him. “You Deran and Chia Pet’s brother?”

“Yeah,” The chia pet moniker was definitely being filed away for later, Craig could already picture how annoyed Pope was going to get when he used it on him. “You Adrian’s?”

“Tommy,” The man introduced himself. “What’s going on?”

“Cops are talking to Deran, won’t let me see him,” Craig grumbled, wondering briefly if Deran had asked for a lawyer or if he even needed one. “They been talking awhile. I called Deran’s cell when my flight got in, let him know I was here, and I could hear Pearce in the background questioning him about someone named Julio. Then some chick ordered him to get off the phone…”

“You say Julio?” Tommy asked, body tensing. “You motherfuckers had nothing to do with him.”

“Why the hell would Pearce be asking Deran about him?” Craig had assumed the guy had something to do with the shooting, why the hell else would the cops bring him up? “Who is this guy?”

“He was my brother,” Tommy snapped, offering no further details. “That’s all you need to fucking know.”

“They’re questioning _**my**_ brother—“

“_**Pearce**_ is questioning your brother. That prick is the only goddamn cop that’s brought up Julio’s murder since the patrol officer that notified Adrian that his body had been located,” Tommy clenched his hands into fists at his side. “Never would have been a problem if Dre had done what I told him to do when we found Julio. The cops never would have been in-fucking-volved.”

“So this Julio guy is dead,” Craig wasn’t sure if that was good or bad for Deran. “What’s he got to do with my brother?”

“Nothing,” Tommy growled, looking like a caged animal ready to attack anyone who got too close. “It’s just that Pearce asshole being a dick. I’ll take care of it.”

“Oh yeah?” Well, shit, not Craig’s interest was piqued. “How’re you gonna do that?”

“None of your business,” Tommy spit at him. “You guys had, what, twenty-years to shake this Pearce fucker, and you haven’t done shit.”

“We’re not, uh,” Craig cast a superstitious glance to the nurses and doctors gathered nearby. “It’s not a choice to have the cops riding our asses. Nothing we can do about it. Just gotta let them run with it until they come up with jackshit, as usual.”

“I guess it’s a good thing the cops out west are dumb as dirt, huh,” Tommy snorted, shaking his head. “I’ll_** talk**_ to Pearce’s bitchass later.”

“You leaving?” Craig furrowed his brows as the other man started for the exit. “You’re not going to see Adrian? Isn’t that why you’re here?”

“I-I’ll catch him later,” Tommy’s gaze flickered to the pair of rooms Deran and Adrian had been assigned to. “If I can’t promise him he’s safe, I can’t say anything to him. I know he’s all right. He knows I’m out making this right.”

“You know who did this?”

“Yeah, I know who fucking did this.”

“Tell me,” Craig grabbed Adrian’s brother by the arm, yanking him back several steps to prevent him from going anywhere. “You know who shot my brother, you better tell me.”

“No,” Tommy wrenched his arm from Craig’s rough hold. “Your brother was just crossfire. My family was the target. I will fucking handle it. You stay here and keep an eye on them.”

“Hey!”

“Stay here!”

* * *

Deran had been interrogated more than a few times through the course of his life for various offenses. More often than not, while not always being the primary investigator on the case, Pearce somehow managed to worm his way into things to take over, and this time was no different.

“You really expect us to believe neither you nor Adrian saw the shooter?” Pearce’s patience had been wearing thin since he’d stepped into the room, and he was just about out of it the longer Deran held out on him. “One of you saw something.”

“I understand your boyfriend’s silence, these are his people, he probably knows the doer personally,” Blanca added, not allowing Pearce to have complete control of the interview. “But you, you don’t have any skin in this game. This person shot you, tried to kill you, you have no reason to protect them.”

“I’m not protecting anyone,” Deran was doing what had been asked of him, what he would ask of someone else in that position: keeping his mouth shut and letting the family handle things their way. “I was too focused on Adrian, trying to get him out there, and then I was on the floor with new holes in my bicep, shoulder, and back.”

“Right, you and Adrian have matching wounds,” Pearce mentioned casually, poking at the gauze covering Deran’s shoulder. “Maybe you’ll have matching scars, that’d be cute.”

“Whatever,” Deran rolled his eyes, resisting the urge to smack the detective’s hand away from him. “Are we done?”

“No,” Pearce dug his feet in. “I still want to know about Julio Romano.”

“I already told you I don’t know anyone named Julio Romano,” He thought he’d made that clear the first time Pearce had brought up the stranger. “I don’t know why you keep bringing him up.”

“I’m bringing him up, because after you learned Dave Trager was seeing Adrian, you sent Pope after him like your own personal attack dog,” Pearce remarked, explaining absolutely nothing. “That’s an extreme overreaction, yet very impersonal, because it was Pope doing the deed. You couldn’t do it, Dave could identify you if things went wrong. Dave, he wasn’t supposed to survive the attack, that’s why Pope let him see his face.”

“We had nothing to do with Dave being attacked,” While Deran felt pangs of guilt over that situation, mostly because of the damage it had done to his and Adrian’s relationship, he didn’t feel guilty enough to cop to it to a member of law enforcement. “And I have no idea what that has to do with this Julio person.”

“Dave survived that first attack because you’re brother screwed up the job,” Blanca cut in. “So, the next time, you decided to take the hands-on approach, do it yourself so it was done right.”

“The next time?” They must have known something he didn’t, because the only person Adrian had been with in the last two years besides Dave was him, and he hadn’t attacked himself. “I’m drawing a blank here.”

“Beating someone to death is a severe escalation of violence from throwing a man off a boat,” Pearce set crime scene photos of a man’s mutilated corpse on top of the blankets covering Deran’s legs to show him the viciousness of the crime. “That’s to be expected, though. Adrian may have dated Dave for a few short weeks, and he may have lived with you for a couple months, but what he had with Julio spanned years. It makes sense you would be angry, even distraught once you found out about their relationship.”

“What relationship?” Deran wasn’t trying to be fucking coy or bullshit his way out things, he honestly had no idea what Pearce was going on about. “Who do you think this guy was to Adrian?”

“His husband,” Pearce laid a copy of a marriage certificate beside the crime scene photos. “Married in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 2011.”

"This says New York City not Atlantic City. And Adrian never said...” Deran wracked his brain, trying to remember Adrian ever saying anything about getting married. “T-That doesn’t make sense.”

“Why? Because he didn’t marry you?” Blanca questioned, cocking her head to the side. “Your possessiveness toward him is academic. So what happened, Deran? You asked him to marry you and he said no? Then you find out he’s married to some other guy—“

“In 2011, Adrian and me were only friends and I was still dating women,” He and Adrian hadn’t even been sleeping together back then. “When’d you say this guy died? 2017? That’s the year I opened the bar, a few weeks after I did, Adrian had to come out here for a little while ‘cause his niece Raina had passed away. He came home a few days after that, we had drinks, and then he was off on the surf tour. He never said anything to me about anyone named Julio, never said they were friends, let alone married. I never knew the guy existed and didn’t know he was dead.”

“By all accounts, you and Adrian have been close friends since you were small children,” Pearce took yet another photo from the file, adding it to the growing pile on Deran’s lap, this time a snapshot of he and Adrian, looking all of five or six years old, playing on a jungle gym at their former grade school. “Why wouldn’t your best friend tell you he had gotten married or that his husband had died?”

“I don’t know,” Deran was beginning to realize there was a lot Adrian didn’t share about his life in New York. “That’s something I’m going to have to ask him.”

* * *

Adrian wasn’t a tough guy, didn’t pretend to be. As soon as the cops were done talking to him, he’d kindly asked the nurse if he could have the pain meds back, and she’d compassionately obliged. It wasn’t long before the waves had crested, the tide had ebbed, and he sunk into a blissful numbness and much needed trip to unconsciousness. His mother had been trying to pry the window on the far wall open so she could have a smoke when he’d fallen asleep, but it was his nephew at his side when he awoke.

“’Riq?” Adrian mumbled, sluggish from the medication. “’S wrong?”

“I wanted to make sure you were okay. Yas did too,” The teenager gestured to a card made out of a craft paper with a picture drawn in crayon sitting on the table next to the bed. “She drew it for you. Big Mama’s gonna bring her by to visit tomorrow, she wanted to let you have today to rest.”

“’Kay,” He had reservations about his niece seeing him in such a weakened state, but he wouldn’t turn her away if Estelle did bring her by. “Have you seen your Uncle Tommy?”

“No,” Tariq frowned. “Is he okay? I mean, losing LaKeisha…”

“I don’t know,” Adrian had asked his mother the same question before his nap, but she didn’t hadn’t had much of an answer for him. “He hasn’t been here. I haven’t been able to see him or… I-I just need to see him, see that he’s…he’s not, um – I just need to know he’s all right.”

“He always is, isn’t he? Nothing keeps him down,” Tariq pasted on a smile that was of little comfort to him. “I can call him for you once we’re done talking.”

“Thanks.”

“I didn’t just come to check on you. I need to ask you something,” Tariq stood a little taller, squaring his shoulders. “You’ve known my dad your whole life. You were around when he met Mom. You saw the beginning of their relationship.”

“Yeah,” He had witnessed the highs and lows, the beginning and the end of Tasha Green & James St. Patrick. “Why?”

“I came home from school today and Mom had this bruise shaped like a hand wrapped around her forearm,” The kid used his own arm to show Adrian exactly where he’d seen the injury. “She told me Ghost had done it. I just want to know…”

“You want to know if she’s telling the truth,” It was understandable given how contentious Tasha and Jamie’s relationship and how often they stretched the truth to make themselves out to be the wounded party. “Is your dad drinking again?”

“I noticed him start up again after Raina died,” Tariq confirmed that his father had fallen back on old habits. “I-I know he can get violent when he’s drunk. He’s pushed me around after a few drinks, but this is Mom.”

“So you want to know if he’s ever been violent with her before,” It was a tough question to answer, and not Adrian’s place to do so, but the kid had come to him because he was looking for the truth, not the prettied up fiction he’d get from one of his parents. “Look, in the beginning, they were happy, but they were young and having fun, partying and drinking. And, yeah, when your dad had a few too many he’d get angry and pick fights with her.”

“You saw it?”

“When your mom and dad were first starting out, Tommy and Jamie were roommates. The parties were usually at their place, and when I was in town, I’d be there, even as a little kid,” Kate’s house hadn’t been suitable for adults let alone small children, so Adrian had been left in his brother’s care while in the city. “So yeah, I saw things, but, you know, there was always someone to shut him down, and nine times out of ten that was Tasha. She had a way of calming him down, and when she couldn’t…”

“He hurt her,” Tariq gritted his teeth. “He would knock her around?”

“’Riq, your mom isn’t the type to stay with someone who beats her up. Some man hit her, she’d hit him back, then she’d be gone,” Adrian liked to think he was the same way, had tried to be, but history taught him that wasn’t the case. “He’d push her, he’d shove her, grab her pretty roughly, and that’s not okay, but she thought she could handle it. He never punched her or slapped her around, that’s not the kind of man he is.”

“Right,” Tariq pursed his lips, hunching his shoulders. “He ratted on her, you know.”

“What’re you talking about?”

“He called in a tip, said she was running drugs through the daycare,” Tariq reported, nostrils flaring. “They raided the daycare a few hours ago.”

“It’s not really surprising, is it?” Like the Codys, Jamie was under the impression he could do whatever he wanted, no matter how immoral, but reserved the right to pass judgment and punishment on anyone who dared do the same. “It fits his characters and helps his case. Having her arrested for drugs would make her look bad during a custody hearing. Taking away her only revenue stream would force her to be dependent on him.”

“They didn’t find anything. She knew he was going to pull something like that, so she cleared out the place,” Tariq praised his mother’s quick thinking. “She wasn’t going to let him take what we were building.”

“Right,” Adrian wasn’t going to offer his opinion on their budding drug business. “One thing that can be said about your mom is that there’s nothing she wouldn’t do to protect what’s hers.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s not always a good thing, Tariq,” Growing up, Adrian had always admired that trait in Tasha, tried to emulate it even, but now he wasn’t sure how he felt about it. “It can drive you to do things you can’t take back.”

“So?” His nephew shrugged. “If it protects your family, who cares?”

“It could hurt other people, Tariq, people close to you,” Adrian might have willfully ignored the damage in the past, but seeing the man he loved and the woman his brother cared so deeply for become of victim of it had changed his thinking. “You aunt—your _**godmother**_ is dead. Your cousin has lost his mother. D-Do you understand that?”

“Yeah, of course,” ‘Riq scrunched up his face in confusion. “What’s that got to do with my mom?”

“It…” Adrian couldn’t say it, couldn’t completely corrupt his nephew’s world view of his mother. “It’s not safe for the family right now, Tariq. I-I think you should be home, look after your sister and your grandmother until your Uncle Tommy finds the person that killed your Aunt LaKeisha.”

“Do you know who did it?”

“It’s for Tommy’s ears only.”

“Was it my dad?”

“Why would you think that?”

“I know Uncle Tommy killed Angela,” Tariq said easily, showing little emotion for the woman. “Dad loved her more than anyone. He’d want revenge, right? He already shot up the mustang thinking Uncle Tommy was in it.”

“If he wanted revenge, he would go after Tommy directly,” Just as he had when he shot up Tommy’s beloved mustang. “He wouldn’t go through a woman—Tommy wasn’t aiming for Angela either. They— neither of them, your dad or Uncle Tommy, would intentionally harm a woman to get to the other one. And your dad, he wouldn’t hurt me, he would never fire a gun in my direction.”

“You swear it wasn’t him?”

“Yes, I swear,” The true perpetrator of the crime was someone much closer to Tariq than his father. “’Riq, your dad has made a lot of bad choices in his life, we all have, but he’s not the devil you want to believe he is.”

“He’s not a good man, either.”

“None of us are.”

* * *

_ **OUTGOING MESSAGES** _

**TO JASON**: _Ghost is gonna kill you!_

Tommy had been expecting a call since he’d sent the text. He’d hoped Jason or one of his counterparts in the organization would contact him, thank him for the heads up and maybe offer him a discount on his next shipment. It was his pisspoor luck that it was Ghost’s name that flashed over his phone screen.

“_Tommy, what the fuck, man? You set me up to be killed by Jason?”_

“You killed LaKeisha,” Goddamn right Tommy had set him up, eye for a fucking eye, motherfucker. “You shot my little brother.”

“_What? I didn’t shoot Adrian. I didn’t touch LaKeisha. I didn’t even know LaKeisha was dead, man.”_

“Don’t play dumb with me,” Tommy couldn’t think of anyone else who wanted to hurt him badly enough to go after his family. “You said you couldn’t get even with me for that Angela shit, but you sure as hell tried, didn’t you?”

“_Look, Tommy, I swear to God, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about! I didn’t kill LaKeisha, and why the fuck would I kill LaKeisha? W-Why the fuck would I shoot Adrian? You really think I would do something like that?”_

“I know you fucking did,” There was no other explanation for what transpired at Tommy’s house the previous night. “You best keep your head on a swivel. If Jason’s dead, our truce is over. I ain’t gonna rest till you six feet under.”

* * *

Deran couldn’t help but feel a sense of betrayal after learning his partner, his best friend, had been secretly married to another man for _**years**_. He had kept his fair share of secrets over the years, sure, but in his mind it was nothing to the magnitude of the one Adrian had been carrying. He didn’t want to get angry about it, his short temper only served to strain things between them, but he wanted to understand how, or rather why, Adrian would keep something like that from him.

“So,” Adrian collapsed into the chair beside the bed, mindful of the IV stand he’d rolled into the room along with him. “Pearce and Rodriguez talked to you, probably said some things you weren’t expecting, maybe threw some accusations around.”

“They accused me of beating some guy name Julio to death,” Deran said bluntly, still annoyed by his visit from the detectives. “A guy you were married to for, like, six years.”

“No.”

“No?” Deran perked up, wondering if that meant Pearce had been mistaken about Adrian’s relationship to the man. “You weren’t married to the guy?”

“I wasn’t married to him for six years,” Adrian clarified, his uninjured arm around his middle. “It was more like three, officially.”

“What does ‘officially’ mean?”

“We separated months before we filed for divorce,” Adrian explained, rubbing the spot on his ring finger where a wedding band would have sat. “It was all very amicable.”

“You never…you never told me you’d gotten married,” It didn’t sit right with Deran. “Th-That’s a big, life changing thing, Adrian. I’m supposed to be your best fucking friend, but you never said a word.”

“What do you want to know?” Adrian asked, opening the floor to him. “I’ll tell you whatever it is you want to know.”

“Who was he?” That was the logical question to start with, he supposed. “How did you meet him?”

“He was a friend of Tommy and Jamie,” Adrian relaxed into his seat, apparently more comfortable with the conversation than Deran. “We only really started getting to know each other the summer after I graduated high school. I spent longer in New York than I usually did, remember? Tommy was trying to talk me into moving up here permanently. I’d run into Julio at a rave a friend of mine hosted and we hit it off.”

“A rave?” That made less sense than Adrian being married. “You don’t go to raves. You were pretty wild back then, yeah, but… We’ve never been to a rave together.”

“In Oceanside, I could get a little crazy, but I couldn’t really let go, you know? I had responsibilities. When I’m there, it’s like I always have to watch what I say and do, and I can’t step too far out of line or everything’s going to come down around me,” Adrian sighed, raking a hand through his hair. “New York’s different. I don’t have to keep myself on lock all the time. I could be free here.”

“With Julio?” That stung for reasons Deran wasn’t ready to think about. “You could be free with him?”

“Yeah. Yes,” Adrian’s eyes brightened. “We drank and we danced, smoked and got high. I mean, I was eighteen-years-old when I started things with Julio, still such a kid in a lot of ways, I wasn’t looking for something deep or lifelong with him. It was just easy for me to be around him. It was easy for us to talk to each other.”

“You ever talk to him about me?”

“You’re my best friend, of course I did,” Adrian grinned. “You’ve been a huge part of my life since we were little kids, Deran, you came up quite a bit.”

“Well, you never said a damn thing to me about this guy until now,” He’d have to forgive Deran for assuming that silence went both ways. “So, I’m just…I don’t… Shit, Adrian, I didn’t have a clue that you’d been married until Pearce said something. I looked like a fucking idiot with him today.”

“I’m sorry,” Adrian apologized, hanging his head in shame. “To me, Julio and I, we were never a secret. It wasn’t like you and me where there were _**years**_ when nobody could ever know that we were together. You and me, we were a secret, Julio and me weren’t.”

“It was a secret from me.”

“I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t actively keep it from you, because I did. I just…” Adrian paused to find the right words. “I didn’t want you to judge my relationship with him or make some snide remark about it. I-I didn’t want you to make me feel bad about caring for someone.”

“Even back then, when I was trying to be—when I still believed I was straight, I never really thought about you ever…marrying someone,” Deran still couldn’t reconcile that idea in his mind. “I always thought it’d be just you and me in the end, when we were old and grey, you know? A house on the beach, surf boards under our arms, telling the young assholes how we used to tear it up on the waves and how they’d never be as good as we were.”

“I used to think that too, but, Deran, like you said, you still thought you were straight, and me… I’d been in love with you since I was fifteen,” Adrian admitted, blotches of red crawling up his neck and tinting his cheeks. “And that first summer I was getting to know Julio, you were in the middle of a pregnancy scare with that girl you were dating. That was a reality check for me. You could’ve had a kid with that chick, been tied to her the rest of your life. It made me realize that I couldn’t spend the rest of my life waiting for you to love me back or accept who you were, because you might never. I just…I needed to be with someone who could love me back.”

“Did he?” Deran asked, swallowing the lump in his throat. “Did Julio love you?”

“I think so,” Adrian nodded, a sad smile tugging at his lips. “He said he did.”

“Did you love him?”

“Not enough, not in the way he deserved to be loved,” Adrian ducked his head. “He never held it against me, though.”

“So, um, you started seeing him when you were eighteen,” Deran steered things away from the topic of love and back around to the relationship itself. “You were nineteen when you married him, that’s, uh, that’s fast, especially for you.”

“It was a whirlwind kind of thing,” Adrian noted, gasping in pain as he shifted on the chair. “Getting married wasn’t a big thing for us, okay? There wasn’t a big romantic proposal. We didn’t plan a wedding. It all just sort of happened after we spent the weekend when in Atlantic City.”

“He was closeted too?” Deran didn’t think Adrian would ever subject himself to the stress and drama that came with that for anyone but him. “That’s why you had to leave town to be together?”

“Julio was openly bisexual. We didn’t _**have **_to leave the city to be together,” Adrian corrected. “We we just did it sometimes for the hell of it, to blow off some steam, drink and gamble and all that.”

“Okay,” For whatever reason, it made Deran feel a little bit better about the situation. “So you were in Atlantic City, drinking and gambling…”

“The only thing that happened in Atlantic City besides drinking and gambling was a drunk and disorderly charge and maybe some indecent exposure, but were were still feeling pretty good by the time we got home so we decided to keep party going. We were just having a good time and way too much to drink, and ended up eloping at this little place in Queens. I don’t even remember why we decided to do it, to be honest with you,” Adrian chuckled at the memory. “We didn’t exchange rings. We didn’t announce it to our families, it was, like, a month before they actually found out and that’s only ‘cause Mom was snooping through my stuff and found the marriage license. It was just a spur of the moment thing that we ran with.”

“You got married but you never lived together. I mean, you never moved out here to be with him,” Truthfully, Deran probably would have dragged Adrian back home if he’d ever tried to move away. “And I don’t remember you ever having any roommates in Oceanside.”

“We never lived together,” Adrian confirmed Deran’s assumptions. “We never really lived as a married couple. I would crash at his apartment when I was in town, but it wasn’t like you and me at the house.”

“You cared about him, were happy with him,” The relationship seemed a little unconventional, even to someone like Deran, but still par for course where Adrian was concerned. “What happened?”

“Things were easy, easier than they were supposed to be I think, and there just came a point when we realized something was missing. I don’t want to call it a spark or whatever, but it was like whatever it was that was separated friends from lovers on an emotional level, we didn’t have it,” Adrian murmured somberly. “We didn’t want to force something that wasn’t there, and we didn’t want to let things get to the point where started hating each other, so we decided to split and just be friends.”

“But you didn’t get divorced right away,” By his own account, they were separated months prior to the divorce. “Did you try to work it out or….”

“We just didn’t see the rush, it’s not like either of us were seeing other people yet,” Adrian acknowledged, scratching the side of his head. “The, um, the day you came to my place, told me to pack a bag ‘cause we were leaving for Belize that night, that’s when I called Julio and told him we should file the paperwork for the divorce.”

“Oh yeah?” That was, uh, interesting timing, to say the least. “Why that day?”

“I guess I was still holding out hope for you,” Adrian shrugged, blush creeping up his face once more. “And, what do you know, during that trip you finally got a clue.”

“Yeah. Yep,” The distance from Oceanside and his family helped Deran act on feelings he had spent so long trying to repress. “You filed for divorce because you hoped something would happen between us?”

“Don’t let it go to your head,” Adrian smirked. “I stayed tight with Julio. We hung out when I was around. We’d shoot the shit, bitch about Tommy, stuff like that. When he met his girlfriend, Soo, I got to know her, tried to help her out after Julio was killed, kept in touch for a little while to make sure she was doing okay.”

“All this, it’s kind of…it’s helping things make more sense, you know? I mean, you lost Julio and your niece within weeks of each other,” That was a lot of grief to process with in such a short time frame. “When you came home from Raina’s funeral, that’s when you decided, pretty much out of nowhere, to take your last shot at the Q.S.”

“I needed to check out for awhile and the tour was the perfect opportunity to do that. I was just so…I was so angry with the people who’d killed them. I was angry with Tommy and Jamie for not retaliating against the men who killed Julio,” Adrian confessed, notes of that buried anger still present in his tone. “It was Tommy more than anyone that I was angry with. H-He’s the one who found Julio’s body, and instead of taking him then and putting him to rest somewhere nice, he tasked Dre to do it. Dre just left him there like a piece of trash until someone else stumbled upon him and called the cops who called me, ‘cause I was still listed at his next of kin. I just…I needed a lot of space to get right with that, so I went on the tour and proceeded to completely dismantle my life.”

“Why did you kiss me before you left?” The question had nagged at Deran since the night the kiss had taken place. “We were sort of reconnecting, but now I know what was going on then…”

“Losing Raina and Julio so close together, it made it feel like everyone was dying. I thought about you and the life you live, how easy it would be for something to go wrong during a job,” Adrian trembled, eyes filling with tears. “And I didn’t want that last kiss outside the shop to be the last one. And I’d seen how much you’d changed, I was ready to give you another chance, and knowing how short life was and how quickly everything could be stolen away from you, I didn’t want to waste anymore time. I wanted you to know that the door was open if you wanted to try again.”

“I did,” He’d wanted to try again the moment they’d called it quits, but he had to wait for Adrian to come to him and tell him it was okay, it still shocked him sometimes that he actually had. “So, uh, is there anything else you’re keeping from me because you thought I’d be a dick about it?”

“No,” Adrian said confidently. “Marriage, divorce, drug trafficking, Serbian mafia, that’s it.”

“Any secret kids running around?”

“None that I’m aware of.”

“That’s a relief,” To be fair, out of the two of them, Deran was more likely to have a kid he didn’t know about somewhere out there. “I don’t either…I don’t think.”

“You know, keeping things to myself, like that stuff with Jack or working with the Serbians, I don’t do that out of malice or shame or whatever,” Adrian sniffled. “It’s just easier for me to deal with stuff by myself and let other people in when it’s settled.”

“That’s how you get yourself into trouble,” It might have been easier for him to handle things on his own, but he also did more damage that way, however unintentional it was. “You’re the one I’ve always taken my problems to, and I know your sister does the same thing, probably your brother too. There’s no reason you can’t do the same for us.”

“You guys always have so much going on, a lot of stress in your lives, I don’t want to add to it,” Adrian scrubbed a hand over his tired face. “I know it gets me into trouble, brings on more stress than if I had just come clean to begin with, but I’m not good with…anything.”

“Well, you’re going to have to work on that,” Deran couldn’t spend the rest of their lives wondering if Adrian was keeping things from him. “You don’t have to tell Tommy and Jess shit, but if you and me are gonna start over together somewhere else, I need you to, you know, tell me when you’ve got stuff going on.”

“You still want to go?” Adrian jolted, pressing a hand to his injured shoulder. “Even after all this?”

“Yeah, I do,” His feelings on that weren’t going to change because he’d been hurt. “But, like I said, you need to tell me things.”

“Okay,” Adrian readily agreed to his terms. “If you’re actually coming with me, I’ll try. I’ll really try. I promise.”

“You can start by telling em how you plan to handle this Tasha stuff,” Deran had kept quiet to the cops, but that didn’t mean he was going to stay out of it entirely. “I know you’ve got something up your sleeve.”

“I have to tell Tommy the truth.”

“Is that a good idea?”

“I don’t know,” Adrian slouched in the chair. “I just know if I don’t do it, Tariq and Yas are going to lose both their parents instead of just one.”

“Okay,” In a no-win situation the most you could do was choose the option that would have the least amount of casualties. “You going to be able to live with whatever your brother chooses to do about it?”

If Adrian had a response, it died on his tongue when their conversation was rudely interrupted by an unexpected visitor strolling into the room like he had a right to be there.

“Adrian, you should be in your own damn hospital bed resting instead of in here with him,” Jamie chastised, somehow looking equal parts disheveled and put together at the same time. “Better yet, you should be talking some sense into Tommy.”

“Is he okay?” Adrian startled in his seat. “I-I mean, I know he’s not okay, but I haven’t seen or heard from him today.”

“He tried to have me killed this afternoon while I was meeting with Jason,” Jamie tattled on one brother to the younger. “He thinks I’m the one who killed LaKeisha.”

“Fuck,” Adrian dropped his head into his hands. “I didn’t tell him it was you. I would never say that. I wouldn’t pin this on someone who wasn’t responsible or to blame in some way.”

“And we both know who that person is,” Ghost said coldly. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out it was Tasha who pulled the trigger. Who the hell else, if not family, would leave you two alive?”

“Um,” Deran had to call bullshit on at least some of that. “We were shot multiple times and left for dead.”

“None of those shots were meant to be fatal,” The older man dismissed Deran’s protests. “They were just warnings. Tasha would never kill a child she helped raise.”

“My mom did,” Family members murdering each other was becoming the norm in Deran’s world. “It’s not as hard for them as you might think.”

“Tasha’s not Smurf,” Adrian retorted, throwing a scathing look Deran’s way. “This is not the same thing.”

“I know. Baz stole from Smurf and had her tossed in jail. Smurf hired someone to take him out, she didn’t pull the trigger herself,” Those were the biggest differences Deran could see. “LaKeisha didn’t actually do anything to Tasha or her family, but Tasha stood over her and put a bullet in her head. So, in a way, what Tasha did was worse.”

“You need to tell Tommy it was her,” Jamie instructed his younger brother. “I am not the one going down for this, Adrian. You need to tell him it was Tasha.”

“She’s the mother of your children, Jamie,” Adrian gaped, astonished by the other man’s attitude. “You know exactly what Tommy will do to her. You should be threatening me into keeping my mouth shut, not telling me to walk her straight to the gallows.”

“Tasha made her bed,” Jamie couldn’t even pretend to be concerned about his former wife. “My kids will be fine, they’ll still have me.”

“Oh, yeah,” Deran snorted, catching Adrian’s eye. “Your family is way worse than mine.”

“Yeah, I’m starting to see that.”

* * *

Tommy had gone to the loft because he couldn’t bring himself to return to the home he’d so briefly shared with LaKeisha. He wanted a quiet place to sit with his grief and process the knowledge that he and ‘Keisha were never going to have the future they dreamed of together. He wasn’t looking for a confrontation with Detective Pearce, but the universe had other plans when he’d shown up and invited himself in before Tommy even had the chance to slam the door in his face.

“I’ll admit, at times, I do have tunnel vision when it comes to the Codys,” Pearce began as his eyes scanned the apartment. “But despite what your brother and US Attorney Warner believe, I had plenty of reason to suspect Deran in Julio Romano’s murder— up until I spoke to Deran about it and realized he had no idea who Julio was, that is.”

“Don’t bullshit me, man,” Tommy wasn’t buying the detective’s half-baked horseshit. “You didn’t give two fucks if Deran had anything to do with Julio’s murder. All you were trying to do was stir shit up and cause problems between Adrian and Deran. What, you think if things went bad with ‘em you could convince them to flip on each other?”

“I don’t want Adrian, I really don’t,” Pearce drawled, slipping his hands into his pockets. “I want Deran. I want to put Deran and his brothers in prison for as long as I can, you should want that too. Deran is dangerous, he and his brothers do not hesitate to clean up their messes, and with everything your brother knows, he is a very big mess.”

“Adrian doesn’t know anything about whatever Deran and his brothers get up to,” Tommy let the lie fall from his lips with ease. “If they’re involved in anything illegal, Adrian knows better than to ask about it, and no criminal worth a damn would just share shit like that.”

“You are aware that the reason I came to New York, initially, was to speak with Adrian and Deran regarding the attempted murder of Dave Trager, right?” Pearce asked. “He died under suspicious circumstances this morning.”

“Well, I never met the guy, but I’m sorry to hear that,” Tommy would have to touch base with his brother about it later, he knew the kid had been hoping for a more peaceful resolution to all that. “As much as I hate to say it, Deran’s been in the hospital since last night, that’s a pretty firm alibi. There’s no way he took a trip out west to off this guy.”

“It was one of his brothers,” Pearce declared matter-of-factly. “Andrew, no doubt about it. I’ve already confirmed Craig was mid-air when Dave met his end.”

“So go talk to Chia Pet,” He was just wasting his breath yapping at Tommy. “My brother was in the hospital all night; he doesn’t know anything about it. You think it’s the Codys, follow that lead. Leave what’s left my family alone.”

“Adrian is wrapped up in all of this, Mr. Egan,” Pearce said gravely. “He was romantically involved with the victim. He’s been linked to the Cody family since he was a small child. The victim positively identified Andrew as his original attacker and Adrian as the person who told him to keep his mouth shut. Adrian might not have anything to do with his murder, but he is not innocent in all this, he will be prosecuted for his role in it.”

“Why do you seem more focused on threatening my brother,” Which was all Tommy had seen the motherfucker do. “Then you do about actually investigating the crimes you think the Codys are responsible for? Did your training manual just instruct you to harass the people closest to your suspects until ones of them breaks or turns of up dead? Or are you just too fucking lazy to actually look for evidence?”

“I want the Codys to pay for the things they’ve done. I’m not going to let them die before they can be held accountable like their mother and adoptive brother did,” Pearce bristled. “If I have to go through your brother to make sure that happens, I will.”

“No, you won’t,” Tommy made his way into the kitchen, opening the drawer by the sink where he kept a loaded gun with a silencer attached to it. “My brother isn’t your pawn. He’s made his mistakes, but he don’t deserve what you’re doing to him.”

“I’ve met the cops and prosecutors that are trying to put you in jail, so I can understand why you might think you can control this,” Pearce’s voice took on a condescending tone. “However, I won’t let you bully or threaten me, put a plastic bag over my head and a gun in my mouth as Cooper Saxe claimed you did to him.”

“Oh, I did that shit,” The only reason Saxe was still breathing was because Ghost thought he’d be more useful alive. “Difference is, no one’s here to convince me you’re worth sparing.”

“I’m a member of law enforcement.”

“That don’t mean shit to me.”

“So your plan here is to kill the detective investigating your brother?” Pearce scoffed. “That’s going to look great for Adrian.”

“He’s got an irrefutable alibi,” The busy hospital provided plenty of security cameras and witnesses that would make his little brother’s alibi airtight. “I haven’t seen or spoken to him in person or over the phone today, no one could say he colluded with me.”

“You’re not worried about getting caught?” Pearce questioned curiously. “You’ll spend the rest of your life in prison.”

“The woman I loved was ripped away from me, our future along with her,” Tommy had breath in his lungs but he didn’t have a life to live, not anymore. “All I got left is my family. I’ll do whatever I got to do to protect them.”

“If you did kill me, you wouldn’t get away with it,” Pearce commented, working under the belief that they were speaking hypothetically. “When a cop is killed, there are no more rules. The NYPD, California State Police, and US Attorney’s office will come down on you harder than you can ever imagine.”

“Buddy, I shot a federal prosecutor in the chest while she looked right at me,” ‘Course he was aiming for Ghost at the time, hadn’t counted on Angela playing hero. “They got that special task force all set up to find her killer, but they ain’t ever come to me about it. I’m not too worried about ‘em doing much investigating into you when you disappear.”

“So Saxe was telling the truth, not just about you and James St. Patrick breaking into his home and trying to kill him, but about you killing Angela Valdes,” Pearce concluded, all his smugness and amusement evaporating in an instant. “And now I know…”

“So now you gotta go,” Tommy decided, taking the pistol from the drawer. “I don’t make the rules.”

He stopped short of apologizing for the circumstances, it wasn’t his fault the motherfucker had some kind of sick obsession with his family. Tommy didn’t owe him apologies or anything but a goddamn bullet, and that’s exactly what gave him. Pearce barely had a chance to reach for his own gun when Tommy lifted his and fired, lodging a slug right between the prick’s eyes.

“Well, shit,” Tommy set the gun on the counter and took in the brain matter painting the wall dividing the kitchen and living room. “What a fucking mess…”

Normally, he would have called his crew to help him out, but there was an issue with availability there, so he was on his own. From experience, he knew cleaning up the carnage was the easy part; it was lugging the body out of building that was going to be tough.

“_Yo, Egan!”_ A fist pounded against the front door. _“Egan!”_

“What the fuck now?” The last thing Tommy needed was some dickhead drawing attention to the loft while he had a dead body on the floor. “Fuck.”

He snatched the gun off the counter and stomped over to the door, flicking the lock and yanking it open to find his former lawyer’s cousin standing in the hall.

“You lied to me.”

“Benny?” Tommy figured he’d be seeing Proctor’s cousin sooner or later, he just hoped it’d be later. It wasn’t hard to guess who’d sent the man his way, though. “Look, I don’t know what the fuck Ghost told you, but whatever it is—“

“Ghost told me that you killed Joey,” Benny didn’t skate around the reason he’d come, he was straight to the point with it. “Said you thought Joey was a rat, but I don’t buy that. Joey would never turn snitch.”

“You don’t know your cousin as well as you thought,” Tommy hadn’t gunned Proctor down on a whim, he made sure he was a rat before he’d lit him up. “Family’s tricky sometimes.”

“Joey wasn’t a snitch,” Benny snarled, brandishing a knife. “You made a mistake, now you’re gonna answer for it.”

“Why don’t you come inside?” Tommy invited the man in, carefully concealing the gun behind his back. “I got nosy neighbors.”

What was one more corpse in the grand scheme of things?

* * *

Deran had drifted into a peaceful kind of oblivion with the help of Adrian carding fingers through the tangled locks of his hair. He hadn’t heard him get up from the chair or leave the room, but he had to have at some point, because he was nowhere to be found when Deran finally peeled his eyes open later in the night.

“A?” He croaked, unable to see anything but blinking monitors in the dark room. “Adrian?”

“I sent him back to his room,” Craig grunted, flipping on the overheard light, momentarily blinding Deran. “He shouldn’t have snuck in here while I was checking into the hotel.”

“Didn’t sneak,” He was a welcome visitor, which was more than Deran could say for some people who’d come through his room throughout the day. “Why’d you send him away?”

“He shouldn’t be here,” Craig mumbled, thumbing through a motorcycle magazine. “He’s the reason you’re in this hospital bed.”

“No, he’s not,” Adrian was the last person Deran could blame for his injuries. “He didn’t shoot me.”

“He’s not the one who beat you up when you first got here either, but he’s still responsible,” Craig remarked scornfully. “This is all his family, right? So it’s him too.”

“Shut up, Craig,” Deran wasn’t going to lie there and listen to his brother carry on about something he knew nothing about. “Your way out of line. None of this is Adrian’s fault.”

“You’ve nearly been killed twice since you’ve been out here,” Craig reminded him. “That’s not nothing, and it’s not gonna happen a third time. Doctors said you’re gonna be in here a week, maybe two if there aren’t any complications. As soon as they release you, we’re going home. Pope’s already gettin’ your place cleaned up for you.”

“No,” Deran had a plan, one he would stick with this time, and he wasn’t going to change it just because Craig thought he could show up and take charge. “I’m not getting into this with you again, Craig. Nothing’s changed. I’m not staying in Oceanside. Once Adrian and I are on the mend, we’re gone.”

“You don’t have to go, Deran, either one of you,” Craig argued, discarding the magazine into the trash bin next to his chair. “Pope and me, we took care of it. I mean, Pope took care of the dirty work, but—“

“Goddamn it. I told Pope I didn’t want to know,” So long as he had no concrete proof that his brothers were involved, he wouldn’t have to lie to Adrian if and when it happened to come up. “T-This is exactly why I’m leaving. I’m sick of this shit.”

“You started this shit, Deran,” Craig pointed out. “You’re the one who sent Pope after that Dave guy to begin with.”

“I know!” He would have to fucking live with that. “You think that’s going to be the end of it? You think it’s going be the last body we drop or the last time the cops want a piece of us? It never stops. I won’t do it anymore.”

“So that’s it, you’re done?” Craig spread his palms over his thighs, digging his nails into the fabric of his jeans. “Done with the jobs, done with the family.”

“I’m done with the life Smurf forced on us,” He would go legit, just like he always wanted to. “I can’t do that in Oceanside, you guys will always find a way to pull me back in, and I can’t do it anymore.”

“What about Nick?” It was a low blow bringing the newest addition to their family into things. “You’re just gonna bail on your nephew? You’re not gonna have a relationship with him? This isn’t like with Julia, okay? This isn’t J. This is _**my **_kid.”

“That’s what phone calls and video chats are for, Craig,” It wasn’t as if Deran was going to cut off all communication with his family, and if none of them were fugitives there were even more opportunities for them to remain in each other’s lives than there were previously. “We’ll come visit and you guys can visit us. I’ll be in Nick’s life, and yours.”

“You won’t be home.”

“Oceanside’s never been home, Craig,” To Deran, it had always been a prison trapping him in a life he never wanted. “I need to find a place that feels right to me.”

“I don’t like it.”

“I know,” He had made that abundantly clear on more than one occasion. “But this is how it’s going to be.”

“Nothing I can do to change your mind?”

“No.”

* * *

It wasn’t a secret that Tommy had been avoiding his baby brother since he’d been admitted to the hospital. He told himself it was because he didn’t have answers yet, that he would swing by just as soon as he did. In reality, it was guilt that kept him away; his brother had been hurt under his roof where he should have been safe.

When he’d finally given in and made the trip to the hospital, he wasn’t fully prepared for the sight of his brother in that hospital bed, skin pale and soaked in sweat, blood steadily seeping through the bandage on his shoulder. He’d seen worse, he’d seen the bodies of good friends decomposed, two of his girlfriends dead on his floor, one put there by his own hand, but this was his brother who he’d been responsible for since the day he was born. He had one job as a big brother, to protect his brother and sister, and he’d failed.

“Don’t lurk at the door,” Adrian mumbled as he gazed out the window, watching raindrops cascade over the glass pane. “’S creepy.”

“Not lurking,” He was dragging his feet. “Figured you’d be camped out in Deran’s room.”

“Craig kicked me out,” Adrian hummed, toying with the IV in his arm. “He’s not my biggest fan right now.”

“He’ll get over it,” If he didn’t, fuck him. “He learns his family’s Pearce problem’s been solved, he’ll get over it.”

“I didn’t need to hear that,” Adrian groaned. “Please tell me you were careful.”

“Always,” He was a pro at crime scene clean up and body disposal. “If it makes you feel better, I didn’t go out looking for him, he came at me making threats against you.”

“Did you know the cops swept up Grim, Spanky, and Roberto today?” Adrian asked, changing the subject. “Grim called me from lockup, said Spanky was making noise about you being the one behind it.”

“I saw Blanca round ‘em up at my warehouse,” To make matters worse, he was the one who’d asked them to meet at the Brooklyn warehouse. “I didn’t roll on my boys. It had to be fuckin’ Ghost.”

“You don’t know that, he’s not the only one with a grudge against you,” Adrian reasoned pragmatically. “How, um, how’s Cash?”

“I don’t know,” He’d been a coward where that poor kid was concerned. “I let him fall asleep in my car then dropped him off with his old man. I couldn’t be the one to tell him about his mom.”

“How are you?”

“I’d be better if I knew what the fuck happened last night,” Tommy had his own theories, but no real evidence to back them up. “I need to know, Adrian. You and Deran are the only ones who can tell me, and I’m pretty sure Deran’s gonna defer to you on this.”

“It wasn’t Jamie,” Adrian claimed, and it sounded like truth to Tommy’s ears. “I know you don’t want to believe that, but it’s true.”

“Okay,” He could accept that if, and only if, his brother had another name for him. “Then who was it, Adrian?”

“There are things you need to know first,” Adrian pumped the brakes, however briefly. “You need the full story or the person who did it will try to twist you up.”

“So tell me the full story.”

“You know what Blanca tried to do with Cash, I know LaKeisha told you,” Adrian started, fingers tangled in the blankets. “It terrified her. S-She came to me, scared that the cops were going to take her son, scared they would try to use her to get to you. We agreed that the only way to protect you and Cash was if she and Cash left.”

“No,” Tommy had told him that was a bad idea when he’d confronted him about ‘Keisha the previous evening. “She wasn’t gonna leave me.”

“She wasn’t leaving you. She was leaving the country. I was going to explain everything to you and she was going to call once she was safe so you could go meet her. If, for some reason, you couldn’t get away or chose not to, I was going to meet her and Cash once things with D-Dave were settled,” Adrian flinched as the man’s name crossed his lips. “You don’t know what it’s like to be on our side this, Tommy. The cops would never let up; they would take Cash and her salon and freeze all her accounts. They would make it impossible for her to live. All she could do was take her son and leave, and hope you loved her enough to follow.”

“She never got a chance to leave.”

“We were waiting on clean passports, but it would be a few days. I was going to take her and Cash to one of your safe houses upstate after you’d gone to bed,” Adrian continued. “But Blanca had gone to someone else yesterday, told them she had a witness helping them build a case, told them what it was being built from. They thought the only person this witness could be is LaKeisha. They didn’t even consider the possibility that Blanca was blowing smoke up their ass to see how they’d react.”

“_**Who**_?” Goddamn it, Tommy was fucking sick of taking the long way around to get to the answers he wanted. “Just fucking tell me. I can take it.”

“I’m on your side, Tommy. I know you need the truth and I’m going to give it to you, but you don’t understand how hard this is,” His brother choked back a sob. “Our family is barely holding on by a thread and this is gonna destroy us all together.”

“It’s one of us.”

“It’s always one of us. It’s always going to be us. It’s one of us this time and it’s going to be one of us next time and the next,” Adrian ranted, weariness and anger spurring him on. “It-It’s never going to be the cops or someone from the outside. We’re going to keep doing this to each other until none of us are left.”

“Adrian!” He wasn’t sure whether to slap the kid or grab him and give him a good shake to break into his tirade. “_**Who was it**_?”

“Blanca told her she had a witness that was going to testify that Tariq wasn’t at the penthouse the night the guy who killed Raina was murdered,” Adrian gulped as the truth was brought to light. “Tasha put two and two together to get LaKeisha and came to the house to confront her.”

“Oh, my god,” Of all the potential suspects on Tommy’s list, Tasha had never once crossed his mind. “It don’t...it don’t make sense. I know they been having problems, but Tasha loves LaKeisha, they been like sisters since before the kids were born.”

“Tasha believed LaKeisha was going to help put Tariq in jail,” Adrian tried to explain their sister’s behavior. “Nothing LaKeisha said was going to change her mind.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“I-I know what you have to do,” Adrian’s voice shook. “But Tasha is not the only guilty party here. Blanca knew exactly what she was doing when she said those things to Tasha. She knew she was putting ‘Keisha’s life in danger and she decide it was worth the risk. She decided LaKeisha’s life was expendable.”

“It wasn’t,” Tommy was done letting dirty cops play shell games with the lives of people he loved. “That’s gonna be made right. It’s _**all **_gonna be made right.”

“What Tasha did, it can’t be forgiven, but she’s still our sister, Tommy,” Adrian said thoughtfully, as if that wasn’t the sharpest part of the knife lodged in Tommy’s heart. “And you have to think about Yas and ‘Riq. She’s their mom.”

“Tasha didn’t think about Cash when she put a bullet in ‘Keisha’s head, did she?”

“I can tell that, uh, that US Attorney, Jacob Warner, what happened,” Adrian suggested a solution that could avoid bloodshed and another body. “Tasha will pay for what she did, she’ll go to jail, and you don’t have to—“

“No.” Jail wasn’t enough, it wouldn’t make anything right or bring LaKeisha back. “She took ‘Keisha from me, took Cash’s mother from him, she has to pay for that.”

“Can you just… Can you just stay? Please. Stay here with me tonight,” Adrian pleaded, reaching out to him. “You can stay and mourn LaKeisha. You can process all of this. J-Just stay a-and try to...—Don’t just react, Tommy. Just stay here and think about it for awhile. Don’t leave. Don’t go do something you’re gonna regret later. Just stay here and let me help you figure this out.”

“Okay,” Tommy relented, if only to calm his little brother down before he worked himself up further. “I’ll stay, but it’s not going to change how this plays out.”

“As long as you stay,” Adrian sagged against the pillows, the tension leaving his body. “Just think on it.”

“What did you mean before?” Tommy asked, sitting at the end of the bed. “What did you mean with all that _‘it’s always going to be us’_ crap?”

“Look at how it always is, Tommy. You and Jamie trying to kill each other every other week. You killed his girlfriend while trying to kill him. Tasha killed your girlfriend, her sister, thinking she was protecting her son. Raina was killed confronting the man she believed was taking her brother down a bad road. Julio’s murder was set up by members of your organization,” Adrian recounted the ways their family and the people close to them had been responsible for each other’s demise. “It was all inside the circle, Tommy, our biggest losses…. The ones we trust the most, our family, your crew, they are the biggest threat to us. The closer we are to each other, the more secrets we share, the easier it becomes for us to tear each other down.”

“It’s not supposed to be like that.”

“But it is like that. We all have such a naïve view of our family. Fuck. Just yesterday I was telling you how different we were from the Codys, but we’re not, we’re worse. We are so much worse,” Adrian made no move to wipe away the tears that had begun to stream down his face. “I don’t understand it. I don’t want to understand it. I just…I can’t do this anymore.”

“What does that mean?” Tommy didn’t want to fear the worst, but it was not to. “Don’t…— I need you right now.”

“You’ve got me. I’m here,” Adrian assured him. “But when Deran and I are back on our feet, we’re gonna go away for a little while.”

“Go where?”

“I don’t know.”

“For how long?” A week? A month? A couple years? How long was Tommy expected to be without his brother? “You ever gonna come back?”

“We’ll come back when we’re ready. I don’t know when that’ll be,” Adrian’s exhausted eyes met his. “I just know I have to do this.”

“If it’s what you need…” Tommy wouldn’t stop him if he felt it was something he had to do. “But you gotta check in with me and Jess at least once a week.”

“We don’t need to know where you are, just that you’re safe.”

“I’ll call at least once a week to let you guys know I’m okay.”

“Promise me.”

“I promise.”

“You know what, you’re not the only one that’s gotta leave this place in their rearview,” Tommy had to seriously consider finding a new place to call home as well. “After what I did today, I might have to get the fuck out of town.”

“Because of Pearce?”

“No, man, Benny. My lawyer, Proctor, you remember? His cousin Benny figured out I lit his rat ass up,” It was a fond memory for Tommy, although he could understand why Benny wouldn’t feel the same way. “He came at me tonight lookin’ to even the score, so I had to deal with that. Stabbed him in the chest with his own knife.”

“Okay,” Adrian nodded along and waited for the other shoe to drop. “And?”

“He’s an Italian, Adrian,” And not a rent-a-mob Italian like that sniveling little weasel Vincent. “Old school Italian mafia. I’m talking a blood member of the Civello family.”

“Jesus, Tommy,” Adrian blanched, smacking a palm to his forehead. “With all the shit we’ve got going on, you had to go and start a war with one of the oldest crime families in New York City?”

“He came at me!”

“Can’t Jason help you out?”

“Jason’s dead,” Ghost had punched his ticket that morning. “Think the Serbs are gonna be busy lookin’ to avenge that.”

“Yeah, you have to get out of town.”

“That’s what I’m saying.”


	10. These City Walls Never Knew that We'd Make it this Far

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd.  
Chapter title comes from: [Silhouette by Aquilo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdpoeUZvVtw)  
Gif sets: [The Truth](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/612236382031724544/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-the-truth), [Fighting Back](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/611398711600398336/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-fighting-back-you-stopped)
> 
> Set during Power 6x10, 6x13, and 6x15 -- If you don't watch Power or haven't finish the final season, the last five episodes were 6x10 from the point of view of different characters.

Tommy slept fitfully those first few nights after losing LaKeisha, tossing and turning on the couch at his mom’s place, unable to process that the woman he loved was gone and Tasha had killed her. Days later, all he could do was lie awake, staring at the ceiling until the sun came up and the pitter-patter of his mother getting up and ready for the day flowed down the steps to his ears, followed by her footfalls on the steps.

“You know, you can crash in your brother’s room,” Kate mentioned as she made her way through the living room. “I’d change the sheets first, if I were you.”

“The couch is fine,” It was pretty comfortable, as it should be for how much he paid for it. “I like having a clear view of the front door.”

“Why, you think someone’s coming after us?”

“Maybe,” Tommy didn’t think Tasha had it in her to come after his family twice, not that she had a reason to when she hit her mark the first time, but he had other enemies now, ones he didn’t have the manpower to fight. “I’m a fucking dead man, Ma.”

“Oh yeah?” She yanked the blanket off him, not so subtly hinting that it was time for him to get up. “What stupid thing did you do now?”

“Something I can’t never take back,” He had no choice in killing Benny or Proctor, it was self-preservation and self-defense, had to be done no matter what family they belonged to. “New York ain’t safe for me anymore. I can’t hide out here forever. Ma, I gotta get the fuck out of town.”

“Where do you think you’re going, huh?”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” There was only one other place that could ever feel like home outside of New York. “I’m feeling L.A., actually.”

“L.A.?” Kate scoffed. “Who the fuck do you know in California?”

“Uh, his sister,” Jess said, making her presence known as she stepped in from the kitchen, snacking on a bowl of cereal. “His niece.”

“When the hell did you get here?” Tommy startled at his sister’s sudden appearance. “_**How**_ did you get in here?”

“Back door,” She jerked a thumb toward the rear of the house. “Didn’t want to wake anyone up.”

“Hey baby,” Kate greeted her daughter with a kiss to her cheek. “Where’s my granddaughter?”

“With her father,” Jess replied, crossing the living room to sit on the sofa, plopping down right on top of Tommy’s legs. “Under the watchful eye of the armed guards her overprotective uncle hired to watch us.”

“Which is where you should be,” Tommy wanted—no, he _**needed**_ at least one of his siblings clear of his shit. “I told you it ain’t safe here.”

“I gave things nearly two weeks to calm down,” Jess grumbled, setting her cereal bowl on the coffee table. “Did you really think you could keep me away forever? Adrian’s hurt, and you…what you lost…I’m so sorry, Tommy.”

“I’m gonna get some coffee,” Kate quickly removed herself from the painful subject, slipping into the kitchen.

“Thanks for being here, sis,” Tommy expressed his gratitude as he wrestled his legs out from under her. “I wish you would have stayed in Oceanside, where it was safe, but I’m glad you’re here.”

“Where else would I be?” She said somberly, reaching out to grip his shoulder comfortingly. “Jesus, Tommy, are you okay? I mean, I know you’re not okay, but…”

“I’m taking it day to day,” He wasn’t sure he was would ever truly be okay again. “You, uh, you talk to Adrian about all this? The shooting?”

“He’s been ducking my calls.”

“Don’t hold it against him. He’s got a lot on his mind. The shooting, it’s got him all twisted up,” Tommy suspected the kid was afraid their sister would ask who had pulled the trigger and was fucking terrified of being the one to have to tell her. “It was Tasha, Jess. Tasha shot our brother. Tasha k-killed LaKeisha.”

“What?” Jess stiffened. “N-No. That…that doesn’t make sense. She wouldn’t do that.”

“She did it, Jess,” Tommy didn’t want to believe it either, part of him still couldn’t. “Adrian wouldn’t have put it on her if it were anyone else. It was her.”

“Why?” Jess asked, eyes blinking rapidly as she struggled to understand. “Why would she do that?”

“She thought ‘Keisha had turned rat,” The cop bitch who made her believe that was gonna fucking pay for her part in ‘Keisha’s murder. “Adrian and Deran, I don’t even know what that was. She couldn’t have known they would be there. They must have surprised her or something.”

“This goddamn rat shit, _**again**_. Why is it the ones who have the poor sense to love someone in the life are always the ones falsely accused of being a snitch?” Jess snarled, digging her nails into her palms. “They look past the bullshit, the violence, and the cops breathing down their necks every other day. They listen to you bitch about how conflicted you are; stitch up your wounds and wipe away the blood. They keep your secrets under lock and key, live with the weight of your decisions, and force themselves to make peace with the damage of your mistakes. They do all that, but the minute the cops start sniffing a little too close to something real, they are the first ones you turn on.”

“No! No, not me,” Tommy wasn’t like that, he wasn’t going to be lumped with the likes of Tasha and the Codys. “I knew ‘Keisha wasn’t gonna snitch.”

“When does it stop, Tommy?”

“For us? Real soon,” Tommy was getting the hell out of dodge, separating himself from the people he had for so long considered family. “I’m leaving New York. As soon as I deal with this Tasha shit and Adrian’s out of the hospital, I’m gone. We’re all gone, and none of us are ever coming back here.”

“Really?” Jess gazed at him with cautious hope in her eyes. “You’re really going to L.A.?”

“Yeah,” It would put him closer to his sister and niece, while at the same time keeping a minimal amount of distance between them and his business. “There’s this guy, Rodolfo, my connect made the intro. He’s got a whole network out there, same shit we got here, just more palm trees and fake tits.”

“So it’s going to be the same old shit, different people and place for you,” Jess nodded, but refrained from offering her opinion on his lifestyle choices. “What about Mom?”

“What about her?”

“She can’t stay here by herself, Tommy,” Jess glanced toward the kitchen. “You’re the only one who can keep her in check. You leave her out here by herself, she will bottom out, and no one will be here to peel her off the floor or the ceiling. She’ll be dead in a month of an overdose or heart attack. She can’t stay here.”

“We’ll figure something out. We won’t leave mom out to dry,” Tommy promised, picking his buzzing phone off the arm of the couch, finding a text message from his nephew. “Hey, I gotta go, ‘Riq needs a meet with me.”

“I’ll go with you,” Jess decided as she stood from the sofa. “You need someone with you.”

“Ordinarily, I’d say no,” If it was something dangerous or that required back-up, he’d leave her behind for her own good, but it was only Tariq. “But it’s cool with me if you want to play my shadow for the day and avoid visiting the wounded, ‘cause you don’t want to see what our sister did to our little brother.”

“As if I was going to give you a choice.”

* * *

> "_Rumors are circulating that after supporting Councilman Rashad Tate for most of this gubernatorial primary season, local entrepreneur James St. Patrick has left the Tate campaign. In a stunning turn of events, sources say that St. Patrick will soon be announced as Tate rival Lorette Walsh’s running mate."_

“Does he even have any experience in politics?” Deran asked, tilting his head toward the news broadcast airing on the TV in the corner of the room. “City council? Anything that would qualify him to be, what, Lt. Governor?”

“Nope,” Adrian flicked off the television set. “But the public loves a hard-luck-turned-success/bad-boy-gone-good story.”

“Sure,” Deran clucked, eyes scanning Adrian’s face. “You look better today. Cheeks aren’t as flushed.”

“Doc said my fever broke,” He should have been released from the hospital with Deran, but a mild infection had impeded his recovery. “They want to keep me a few more days, just to be safe.”

“I doubt they’re going to be able to keep you much longer without you staging a breakout,” Deran joked as he began carding his fingers through Adrian’s hair. “Sorry I wasn’t here last night. Craig wanted us to spend time together.”

“It’s okay. A hotel bed is more comfortable for you than trying to squeeze onto this one with me,” Adrian would have preferred having Deran at his side, but it wasn’t fair to ask him to stay past his own release. “It’s good you’re spending time with your brother. Is he still, uh, against the idea of us leaving?”

“He’s not happy about it, but I think he’s starting to accept it,” Deran murmured, moving from the chair to sit on the edge of the bed. “It’s was kind of boring being stuck with him all night. All he wanted to talk about was Nick.”

“I get it,” His sister could drone on for hours waxing poetic about Charlie. “Did you sleep well at least?”

“Not really, but probably better than you did,” Deran sighed, nudging Adrian over gently so he could stretch out beside him on the small bed. “Had a lot on my mind, I guess.”

“Yeah?” Adrian could only imagine the kinds of things bouncing around inside Deran’s head. “Like what?”

“You and Julio,” Deran’s voice took on a dejected tone. “You being married to Julio.”

“Should’ve known you’d be back on that as soon as you were off the morphine drip,” Adrian groaned and rolled his eyes. “You were too chill when we talked about it before; I knew it had to be the meds.”

“Was I supposed to just let it go?” Deran huffed, tugging at the blankets until Adrian lifted the side so Deran could snuggle beneath them. “You got married and never told me about it.”

“Jesus Christ, Deran, I was nineteen,” Adrian may have been a legal adult, but he’d still been a goddamn teenager, a teenager making grown up decisions he wasn’t ready for. “You know what else I was at nineteen? Stupid.”

“You regret it?”

“I’ve done a lot of things in my life that I regret, Deran,” He never regretted his relationship with Julio, it was something he looked back on fondly, but the marriage, making that choice spurred on by alcohol, lust, and friendship that felt a lot like love, that he wasn’t so sure about. “You want to know how many of those things I regret involve you?”

“No.”

“You sure? ‘Cause it includes every single time I sat and listened to you brag or complain about all the people you’ve banged,” Those were long, tedious hours of his life he could never get back. “Before and after you came out.”

“I said I didn’t want to know.”

“Then accept I have a past that you weren’t a part of and get over it.”

“It’s not that I wasn’t part of it,” Deran drew in a long breath. “It’s that you kept it from me. You never said a word.”

“Well, Deran, I’m secretive and you’re a whore,” Adrian deadpanned. “This is who we are.”

“Hey!” Deran let out an indignant squawk. “I’m not the only one here who’s gotten around.”

“I can still remember then names of all the people I’ve slept with,” That gave him a distinct advantage over most of the men in his life, Deran included. “I may have been around the block, but I was still a gentleman about it.”

“You got a low-bar for what it means to be a gentleman,” Deran snorted, shifting onto his side to take the pressure off the wound on his back. “You’re changing the subject, don’t think I didn’t notice.”

“Okay, Deran, I was married, briefly, then I was divorced,” It wasn’t a complicated or hard to understand situation. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I’ve already explained why. I’m not sure what else I can do to help you get right with this.”

“Would you ever do it again?” Deran questioned curiously. “That marriage thing, I mean.”

“With who?” Adrian asked before catching Deran’s dumbfounded expression out of the corner of his eye. “You?”

“Maybe.”

“Oh, we’re fighting today, that’s what we’re gonna do?”

“Why not me?”

“Aside from the fact that you don’t actually want to get married?” Adrian certainly wasn’t looking to take the vows again. “If I’m going to be with you for the rest of our lives, that’s a decision I want us to make every day. I don’t want a piece of paper with our names signed on the dotted lines to make us feel compelled to stay together if things stop working.”

“Probably not a good idea to bind our families together anyway,” Deran mused. “They’re kind of psychotic.”

“I want to be with you, Deran, in a long term, permanent kind of way,” With all they had been through together, the good, the bad, and the ugly, their feelings for each other had never faded, that had to count for something. “If this history between me and Julio is bothering you that much….”

“The history isn’t the problem,” Deran grunted, clearing his throat. “You cared enough about this guy to marry him. That’s…that’s a lot of feelings…_**deep**_ feelings.”

“Deran, you strung me along for years, put me in the hospital, and bailed on me after I protected you and your brothers from the cops, but I care enough about you to forgive all of that and give this another try.” From the outside, to the people who knew them and the trials of their relationship, Adrian probably seemed like the world’s biggest idiot for all the chances he continued to give Deran. “I wouldn’t have done that for Julio or anyone else.”

“Technically, I didn’t bail on you,” Deran claimed, face twisted in an inscrutable expression. “I’m here.”

“If I had gone to Indonesia as planned, you wouldn’t have shown up a few days later. You had every intention of staying in Oceanside with your brothers and leaving me all alone,” Adrian was still working to get past that, probably would be for a while. “You trying to say otherwise is proof you’re trying to stir shit up. Why are you trying to pick a fight with me?”

“’Cause you’re fighting back.”

“Deran.”

“When I first came out here, you asked me how I liked you, scared and helpless or quiet and passive,” Deran mentioned. “Truth is, I’ve always liked it when you were fighting with me.”

“Well, we do it enough, so…”

“Lately we have been, yeah, but you stopped arguing with me for a while, you know? You wouldn’t fight back,” Deran murmured, staring up at Adrian through hooded eyes. “I’d say something to start shit or do something that should’ve started something, but you wouldn’t snap at me or bite back, you’d just do this longsuffering sigh thing and let it go.”

“I didn’t let it go,” He tucked it away, let it simper inside of him. “I just didn’t react to it.”

“Bugged the fuck out of me.”

“That was kind of the point,” Fighting with Deran had never gotten him anywhere, never changed their circumstances or ended in a real apology, it didn’t help them work through whatever it was they were going through at the time. “You never acted like you cared when I was angry or upset, and I came to realize that the only reaction I could have that would really get your attention was no reaction at all. It always infuriated you when it seemed like I was the one who felt nothing.”

“Sorry,” Deran apologized, hiding his face in the crook of his arm. “Something’s changed, though. You’re barking back at me again when I piss you off.”

“Not reacting wasn’t doing us any good either,” Adrian couldn’t be angry with Deran for not understanding how he felt when he wasn’t showing him how he felt. “I didn’t do it because I didn’t feel anything. Sometimes it was to get a rise out of you, other times to keep the peace. Hindsight, I think it did more harm than good, I’m sorry for that.”

“We both made mistakes,” Deran mumbled against his skin. “Probably make more.”

“Knowing us, that’s a pretty safe bet,” Adrian chuckled. “We’ll get through it.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Hey,” He tapped Deran’s arm lightly. “Do me a favor?”

“What is it?”

“Break me out of here.”

“I’m not up for being skinned alive by your brother for taking you home before the doctors are ready to release you.”

“Pussy.”

* * *

The murder of an Assistant United States Attorney should have been a high profile, career-making case, which was the whole reason Warner had accepted the job to run the task force in the first place. He knew AUSA Angela Valdes had been dirty and was prepared for that to complicate matters, potentially make the case difficult to prosecute. What he didn’t sign up for, or rather who, was Cooper fucking Saxe and his obsessive, destructive behavior.

“I fired you,” Warner had hoped that meant he would never have to see the deranged son of a bitch in his office ever again. “How the fuck did you get in the building?”

“Uh, my I.D. still works,” Saxe held up his identification card that hadn’t been confiscated the night Warner had shown him the door. “Gotta love government bureaucracy.”

“I’m getting security,” Warner snagged the phone off its cradle. “And they’re taking that badge this time.”

“No, I’m—I’m not fucking going away,” Saxe wrenched the receiver from Warner’s grip, slamming it down on the desk before he could finish dialing the number. “Neither is James St. Patrick or Tommy Egan. I don’t work here anymore, so you won’t be able to blame me if you let them get away. It’ll be on you.”

“I’ll accept responsibility for that,” Even if he did have the same confidence as Saxe that St. Patrick and Egan were responsible for Angela Valdes’ murder, he didn’t have the evidence to prove it in a court of law. “What I won’t take responsibility for any longer is you. We are attorneys, Saxe, we’re supposed to manipulate the law, not break it.”

“I didn’t—“

“You kidnapped a child to coerce a witness into talking.” While threatening to forcibly remove a child from their home to convince one or both of their parents to testify was a technique often employed by law enforcement, anyone with a moral bone in their body stopped short of making good on that threat unless the child was in real danger. “Don’t get me started on all the witnesses you’ve been instrumental in getting killed.”

“I was trying to do my job, things got a little messy,” Saxe shrugged, unbothered by the bodies that had piled up around him. “Have, you, uh, searched St. Patrick’s hotel room?”

“Why the fuck would I do that?”

“Oh, I don’t know. LaKeisha Grant is dead,” Saxe made himself comfortable in the chair across from Warner, obviously not intending to go anywhere anytime soon. “There’s probably evidence in that hotel room that St. Patrick was aware of their new address, evidence linking him to her murder.”

“Are you on medication, Saxe?” If he wasn’t, Warner was certain he should have been. “James St. Patrick is about to run for lieutenant governor.”

“Yeah, exactly,” Saxe threw his hands in the air. “He’s a murdering drug dealer who’s about to run for public fucking office.”

“You think he’s the first one?” There wasn’t a politician in the world that was squeaky clean. “Listen to me, fuckface. St. Patrick did not kill LaKeisha Grant, he has an alibi. He was with Rashad Tate in his office, he’s on the security cameras. You didn’t think I would check?”

“So he had somebody else do it.”

“St. Patrick is not the great and powerful Oz, Saxe. He’s just a guy,” Since he wasn’t a suspect in LaKeisha Grant’s murder or any other case Warner had no intention of searching his hotel room or anything else belonging to him. “And neither is the Dolan kid or the Codys, you can tell your new BFF Detective Pearce that the next time you see him. While you’re at it, you can tell him his superiors at the California State Police are looking for him, apparently he’s out of vacation days, and refusing to answer his phone or return to work are not going to earn him anymore. He’s got till the end of the week to report to his department or he’s done.”

“I haven’t heard from Pearce in a week, fuck, maybe two,” Saxe furrowed his brows. “The last time I talked to him, he said his witness, Dave Trager, was killed. I figured he went back to California to deal with that.”

“Apparently not,” Pearce wasn’t under Warner’s purview in an official capacity, but he had been working out of his district with people who were which made him Warner’s problem. “I’ll send someone by his hotel to check on him.”

“You think Egan or St. Patrick killed him to protect their brother?”

“I think he’s been on edge since he got here,” The visiting detective had been teetering dangerously close to Saxe-level psychosis for some time Warner would wager. “Julio Romano’s case being a bust might’ve pushed him right over it.”

“Or he found something in the Romano case to link St. Patrick or Egan or the Codys—“

“Get the fuck out of my office, Saxe,” Warner couldn’t listen to another long-winded rant about the St. Patricks or the Egans or the motherfucking Codys. “J-Just get out before I have you arrested for trespassing.”

* * *

Jess was keenly aware that her brothers were in constant need of adult supervision, but she didn’t normally attach herself to their hips unless they were nearing their breaking points. Given everything Tommy was going through, the loss and betrayal he was facing, she couldn’t bear to leave him alone. A meeting with their nephew shouldn’t have been anything to worry about, but seeing as Tariq’s mother had killed Tommy’s girlfriend, Jess wasn’t sure how either party would react to each other.

“Uncle Tommy, you got my text,” Tariq greeted his uncle warmly, while casting a wary look toward Jess. “I didn’t know you were in town, Auntie.”

“Yeah, well, your uncles have a bad habit of getting into trouble if I’m out of their line of sight,” She was seriously considering putting leashes and shock collars on them to keep them in line. “And I wanted to check in, see how you were. A lot’s happened in the last few weeks.”

“I’m fine, just—“

“Hey,” Tommy interjected, as impatient as always. “What’s the emergency? Speak freely in front of your aunt.”

“Heard a recording with your voice on it, something about you and Ghost killing Lobos,” Tariq revealed, hitching his backpack higher on his shoulder. “Proctor’s little girl, Elisa Marie, she had it on her laptop, she and her aunt called me to a diner to listen to it. They wanted to know if I could identify the voices. They think it’s got something to do with Proctor being murdered in the penthouse.”

“Fuck!” Tommy shouted at the sky. “This recording still exists?”

“Maybe her dad gave it to her,” Tariq proposed. “I tried to take it from them, but I was too exposed. I do know where they are staying, though. I followed them.”

“You let yourself get recorded confessing to a murder?” Jess had always assumed Tommy was cautious enough to check for wires before he started shooting his mouth off. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“I didn’t fucking know Ruiz was working for the feds when I told him that or got him with the stabby-stabby,” Tommy grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Goddamn it! Ghost promised me that Proctor got rid of that laptop.”

“Either he lied,” Which, let’s be frank, was like breathing for Jamie. “Or Proctor lied to him about getting rid of it.”

“Elisa Marie’s aunt didn’t believe me when I said I didn’t know you. I’m just trying to figure out who you think they’ll play that recording for next,” Tariq said worriedly. “I understand you want to kill Ghost, Uncle Tommy, but that recording is still out there, it’s evidence, and you know if they play that tape for the cops, it’s over.”

“I gotta go. There’s something I gotta do. Your aunt’s gonna make sure you actually get to school today,” Tommy signed Jess up to walk the kid to school. “Where’d you say this little Proctor girl is staying with her too-smart auntie?”

“Right around the corner from the diner we met at,” Tariq gnawed on his bottom lip, agitated by the question. “Uncle Tommy, don’t hurt Elisa Marie, all right? She’s a good kid, and she’s been through a lot already.”

“That’s not how this works, ‘Riq,” Tommy regretfully disappointed their nephew. “You can’t tell me there’s information out there against me and then tell me I gotta play nice to get it. I’ma do what needs to get done.”

“Tariq,” Jess addressed her nephew with a tight smile on her lips. “Will you wait for me by the sidewalk? I need to talk to your uncle for a minute.”

“Sure,” ‘Riq turned on his heels and started off toward the sidewalk. “Just don’t hang Elisa Marie off a roof, Uncle Tommy!”

“That’s just for family!” Tommy quipped to the teenagers retreating back. “All right, sis, what is it?”

“You can’t kill this little girl, Tommy,” Jess didn’t care what evidence the girl had in her possession or who her family was, murdering a child wasn’t an option. “That is a line you cannot cross.”

“You think I’d do that?” Tommy had the gall to sound both hurt and offended by the insinuation. “That really what you think of me, sis?”

“No, it’s not, but things are crazy right now,” She couldn’t ignore that they weren’t working under normal conditions and that there was a very real possibility that her brother wasn’t thinking clearly. “I’m afraid that with all you’re going through, losing LaKeisha, Tasha being behind it, I’m afraid it’s going to make you do things you otherwise wouldn’t.”

“I’m not gonna kill her,” Tommy promised his sister. “I’m just going to get the recording from her and destroy it, once and for all.”

“And if she won’t give it up?” Jess was terrified of how far her brother might go to obtain it. “Then what?”

“I’ll convince her.”

“Look, Tommy, I-I know that recording is bad,” If it fell into the wrong hands, her brother could very well spend the rest of his life in prison. “But I can’t…I can’t get behind you using a little girl who has already lost her father to all this.”

“If you could get behind it, you’d be just as dirty as the rest of us, and that can’t happen,” Tommy pressed kiss to her temple. “You’re out true north, sis.”

* * *

Confronting Adrian while Deran was at his scheduled check-up was a dick move, Craig would cop to that, but it was the only time he could get the other man alone. There was a lot of friction between them as of late, and Deran wasn’t too keen on letting the two of them speak at all, let alone without a referee, so Craig was forced to utilize underhanded tactics like sneaking around.

“Looks like you’re healing up,” Craig commented, standing at the foot of the hospital bed. “Still pale as shit.”

“That’s the Irish in me,” Adrian managed a half-hearted joke. “Deran’s not here. He had a follow up with the doctor.”

“Getting his stitches checked and shit, I know,” That gave them at least fifteen to twenty minutes for a little chat. “I’m here to talk to you.”

“Irate texts aren’t enough for you anymore, huh?” Adrian muttered, throwing a look toward the bag his IV was attached to. “Might as well have this out while they got me on the good stuff.”

“I’d ask for a hit of that, but I’m laying off the junk,” If he wasn’t trying to stay straight for Nick, he’d tear that IV out of Adrian’s arm and stick in his own vein. “So, this stuff about you leaving with Deran…”

“You’re not on board, you made that clear in your messages,” Adrian said with a huff. “You did an excellent job of conjuring Smurf with all that shit about me stealing Deran from you, except she would’ve had the balls to say it to my face.”

“Pain meds loosen your tongue.”

“No, man, I’m just not in the mood to put up with possessive Cody bullshit,” Adrian remarked curtly. “Let’s get one thing straight, I didn’t ask Deran to come with me when he said I had to leave Oceanside. Yeah, on that last night, on the pier, I let my emotions get the better of me and I begged him to come, but he declined. When I decided I was leaving this time, I didn’t ask him to come, he made that choice himself. I had one slipup, but I haven’t pushed him to do anything he doesn’t want to do.”

“Deran belongs with his family, he knows that,” Sure Deran liked to escape for weeks at a time once in a while, fuck, they all did, but his little brother had never said anything about leaving permanently until Adrian had gotten into trouble with the cops. “He doesn’t want to leave.”

“Deran’s been making noise about getting out of Oceanside, away from your family, since we were little kids, you just didn’t want to hear it,” Adrian retorted, refusing to accept Craig’s baseless claims. “You need to understand that this isn’t just what Deran wants, it’s what he needs. I haven’t asked him to come, haven’t pushed him, but after everything that’s happened, I’m going to start.”

“Everything that’s happened is on your goddamn family—“

“My family is why I have to go,” Adrian acknowledged, cupping a hand over his heart. “Your family is why Deran needs to go.”

“Bullshit,” Craig scowled. “We haven’t done anything to him.”

“Not yet, but it’s only a matter of time,” Adrian bristled, his temper flaring. “My family isn’t the only one killing itself off from the inside out.”

“What the hell does that even mean?”

“Cath, Baz, Smurf,” Adrian ticked the dead off on his fingers. “Julia too. If you guys had tried to help her instead of letting Smurf toss her out, she might be alive today.”

“Not likely,” Julia had always been on the fast track to a fatal O.D. “Cath was a mistake. Baz, he knew Smurf would retaliate against him for what he did. And Smurf…she was looking to go out in a blaze of fucking glory.”

“You’re not seeing the pattern?” Adrian balked, tipping his head against the pillows and staring up at the ceiling as if he were looking to the gods for guidance on how to deal with Craig. “The cops aren’t putting you away, a rival crew isn’t picking you off one-by-one, and jobs aren’t going bad. You are burying family member after family member because there is no trust and no loyalty. It’s going to keep happening until you’re all dead, and I won’t let that happen to Deran. I will not watch that happen, and I won’t let him watch it happen to me.”

“That’s crap, man,” Yeah, betrayal had tainted their family, but that was all put to rest with Baz and Smurf. “The problem was Smurf, how she controlled us and the business. With her gone, it’s all gonna be different.”

“Right, ‘cause her little mini-me is really gonna change things up,” Adrian chuckled darkly. “It’s going to be more the same, except a hell of a lot more dangerous, because J thinks he’s smarter than everyone, and who knows, maybe he is, but he does not have the experience or know-how to navigate this life. It’s only a matter of time before he talks a big game to the wrong person that he can’t live up to, or gets in bed with a crew higher up on the food chain than the Trujillos. He’s going to get you all killed, locked up in prison, or involved in something you’ve got no business being in.”

“We’re not going to let that happen,” There was no way in hell they would let J lead them down the goddamn rabbit hole of destruction. “Me, Pope, and Deran, we’re gonna run things ourselves. There’s no leader. We get final say in the jobs we do and who we work with.”

“But not in the lives you live, huh?” Adrian said scornfully. “Deran’s decided he doesn’t want to be in Oceanside anymore. He wants to start over somewhere else, but you refuse to let him do that. You’re going to guilt him into staying in a life he hates, a life that makes him hate himself. That doesn’t bother you, though, does it? As long as you get what you want, goddamn the rest of us, isn’t that right?”

“No!”

“If you care about Deran at all, Craig, you will let him go. If you force him to stay here and continue on the path Smurf put him on, he will hate you for the rest of his life, just like he hated her. Your relationship will never recover,” Adrian declared in a grim tone. “But if you let him go and it turns out you were right, he doesn’t like it, then he’ll go back to Oceanside, to you and Pope. He won’t stay away because of me, and he’s already proven he won’t leave to be with me. I’m just a bonus here, man. Oceanside, the life he’s been living, it’s poisoning him, that’s why he wants to go. He needs a fresh start, if you love him enough, you’ll let him have it. You understand?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Good,” Adrian relaxed, the tension leaving his body. “And, hey, I don’t want you or Pope to worry about this money shit with my brother, okay? What happened to Deran, it wasn’t retaliation, but he was hurt by a member of my family. So let’s call it a draw. Our families don’t owe each other anything, blood or money.”

“Your brother gonna go along with that?”

“I’ll make sure he does.”

* * *

There was a time when Jess loved Deran the same way she loved her own brothers, but that changed after the boys had gone to Belize. The burden of being Deran’s secret had begun to wear on Adrian, forcing him to turn inward when displaying too much of himself could have reflected poorly on Deran. The beating Deran had put on Adrian was the last straw for her, as it should have been for Adrian. The longer the saga of Adrian & Deran went on, the wider the rift grew between Jess and whatever sibling bond she once shared with Deran.

The rift strained things, added tension to Adrian’s relationship with Deran, but it was necessary. Adrian forgave Deran’s sins too easily, set himself up for more pain and heartache. Jess had to hold onto the hate her brother couldn’t so she should take care of him. If Adrian was set on running off to start a new life with Deran, all that hate Jess had been carrying would be useless to her. She wouldn’t be able to properly care for her brother with an ocean separating them, and if she couldn’t do it, she needed to be certain that someone else would.

“Hey,” She intercepted Deran in the hospital corridor. “Talk to you for a minute?”

“Uh…” Deran’s gaze flickered nervously to Adrian’s room at the end of the hall. “Sure, I guess.”

“How you doing?” She wasn’t unsympathetic to his injuries, the kid had been through the ringer as a result of her family’s inner-conflicts. “You healing okay?”

“Docs say I am,” Deran shrugged, wincing as the move tweaked his wounds. “Still hurts like a bitch.”

“Yeah,” She frowned, but resisted the strange urge to hug him. “I have a bag for you at Mom’s place, Pope packed it, said it was everything you might need or want wherever you and Adrian decide to go. I put together one for Adrian too.”

“Saves us a trip back home, I guess,” Deran hummed, seeming almost relieved to avoid the trip. “What about Adrian’s deal? Doesn’t he have to go to court and sign something?”

“I talked to his lawyer, he’s going to fax the paperwork,” Jess had explained Tommy’s recent loss, made a case about why Adrian needed to stay close, and the attorney had understood and agreed to pull some strings. “He made a few calls. Adrian won’t have to stand in front of a judge or anything like that.”

“What, uh, about the Dave stuff?” Deran asked hesitantly. “Pearce had him on witness tampering and accessory charges.”

“Dave’s dead, he’s not going to be testifying unless the DA finds a judge that’ll allow a Ouija board in as admissible evidence,” Jess didn’t have to think too hard on who was responsible for Dave’s untimely death. “And from what I understand, Pearce is MIA, so that case is at a standstill. According to Adrian’s lawyer, even if Pearce pops back up, without Dave’s testimony he’s got nothing. Looks like Adrian and Pope are in the clear.”

“Pearce is missing?”

“I’m sure neither of our families had anything to do with it,” She suspected Tommy, but would never admit to it to the police or anyone else. “There are no charges pending against you or Adrian. You are free to go wherever you want without the threat of being fugitive. If that’s what you want, I mean, to leave with Adrian.”

“You still don’t believe me?” Deran pinned her with a sharp glare. “You know what? That’s not my problem.”

“There’s a lot of history between us, Deran, good and bad,” Unfortunately, the bad stuck out in the forefront of her mind where the good faded to the background. “Adrian’s your best friend; you could always talk to him about anything, from your family life to the bitches you banged. He couldn’t do the same with you. If he tried to talk to you about our family, you would just tell him how much worse yours was, and you’d turn into a giant asshole if he even mentioned someone he was seeing—“

“Where you going with this?”

“I am the one he came to when he needed to talk,” It wasn’t often, her little brother internalized a lot, too much, and only reached out for a listening ear when he felt it all start to boil over. “I am the one who put him back together every time you broke him.”

“I’m grateful he had you to turn to when I couldn’t be the friend I should have been, you know, the kind of friend he was to me,” Deran ducked his head in shame. “But things are different now. Adrian and me, we’re talking again. He told me about Julio. I didn’t overreact, I didn’t shut him down. I was upset, but I listened.”

“Julio was good for Adrian. They were happy those few weeks out of the year they got to spend together,” They’d been legally married three years, together maybe four, but in reality the time they spent together as a couple only added up to a few months, a year at the most. “Even if Adrian had loved Julio the way he loves you, the way Julio loved him, it never would have worked out in the long run.”

“Why?”

“Separation of church and state. Julio was a high-ranking member in Tommy’s organization,” It would only serve to complicate things between them eventually. “At some point, Adrian would have used his relationship with Tommy to make things easier for Julio in the organization, or Tommy was going to lose control and Julio wouldn’t have a choice but to turn to Adrian to get Tommy in check. That clear water was bound to get muddied. They wouldn’t have lasted long once that line was crossed.”

“Adrian and I won’t last if we stay in Oceanside,” Deran commented, swallowing thickly. “My family, our reputation, all the history there, it’d never let us be together. We can’t be who we want to be there, together or apart.”

“I know,” Since they were small children, she had watched them both fight the war over who they wanted to be, who they were, and who they _**had**_ to be to survive the lives they were born into. “I just need to know that you’re serious about all this, Deran. You can’t convince Adrian, again, that you’re going to leave and build a life together, only to change your mind at the last minute, ‘cause he’ll still leave, but this time he won’t have _**anyone**_ to pick him up and put him back together. I can’t let that happen.”

“There’s too many bridges burned between us for you to believe anything I have to say,” Deran acknowledged, tired eyes boring into hers. “But I am going. We’re going together. We can’t…-- If we stay, we’re done, and not just with each other.”

“I know,” Oceanside was not a place either of them had the strength to survive any longer. “Your brothers don’t have to worry about you; Adrian’s always taken care of you. I-I need that same assurance. I need to know Adrian’s going to be taken care of.”

“Adrian doesn’t make shit like that easy,” Deran smirked. “I’ll do what I can, as much as he’ll let me.”

“Thank you,” Jess wasn’t a selfish woman, if she was getting peace of mind out of this, she would have some in return. “Craig’s got his little family set up to keep his head above water. I know Julia’s friend Angela has been hanging around Pope, but I wouldn’t trust that whore with a house plant, let alone another human being. I’ll look in on Pope for you.”

“He’s gonna move into my place, I’ll get you a key before we go,” Deran slipped his hand in his pocket of his sweats, like he thought he would find a key there. “Could you just make sure he stays on his meds? He’s been pretty good about taking ‘em since Cath disappeared, he knew he needed to be on them while he was taking care of Lena, but without her, and now with Smurf gone…”

“I can do that,” She would pick up the prescriptions and watch him take them every morning if she had to. “I draw the line at looking after Julia’s kid and daddy dearest, though.”

“Dude, I don’t even want to do that, I wouldn’t ask you too.”

“Appreciate that,” Jess flashed him a small grin. “Well, I, uh, I guess we should go see Adrian.”

“Hey,” Deran nudged her foot with his own. “He’s okay, sis.”

“Yeah?”

“If you want to procrastinate a little longer, we can go pick him up some food that doesn’t come from a hospital cafeteria.”

“You want a hamburger, don’t you?”

“So much.”

“All right. Let’s go.”

* * *

If there was one thing Tommy could be counted on to do, it was get shit done. His crew, his connect, they relied on him to make the tough choices and get the job done, if he couldn’t do that, he couldn’t be trusted to lead his organization or his family. Part of that was eliminating threats, whether it be a rival organization who had done his crew wrong, a little girl harboring evidence against him, or a woman he loved like a sister who murdered the woman he loved. The closer those threats landed to home, the harder it was for him to do what he had to do.

If Jess hadn’t insinuated herself, offered up her feelings on how he would handle Proctor’s little girl, Tommy would have been able to go out and do the job, no fuss, no muss, no guilt. With his sister’s words weighing heavily in his mind, doubts began to creep in, he began to second guess himself and look for something, anything to distract him from what he had to do. It was that need for distraction that led him to a press conference at Truth where he was escorted out by security, to a run-in with Detective Rodriguez, who gave him LaKeisha’s personal effects that had been collected the night she was killed. The evidence bag, the earring that didn’t belong to ‘Keisha tucked in with her cellphone, wallet, and keys, that’s what had taken him to Tasha’s apartment.

He had managed to avoid her for a week in a half at his brother’s insistence that he give himself time to process and grieve before settling that score. He never thought when he finally confronted her it was his own weakness he would be faced with, or that his weakness would lead him to his brother’s hospital room searching for counsel.

“Jess isn’t here?” Tommy asked, finding his youngest sibling alone in the unwelcoming, sterile smelling room. “Deran?”

“It’s just me,” Adrian assured him. “I think Deran’s still in with the doctor. I didn’t even know Jess was in town.”

“She’s in town,” Tommy took the evidence bag from his jacket pocket and tossed it onto his brother’s lap. “You know what that is?”

“Um,” Adrian picked up the bag, inspecting the contents closely. “A wallet, thumb drive, set of keys, cellphone, and a woman’s earring.”

“Tasha’s earring,” It was one hoop from a pair Holly had stolen from Tasha years ago that Tommy had since replaced. “Cops found it on ‘Keisha’s body.”

“I’m sorry, Tommy.”

“Any doubt I had about you being wrong or lying to protect Ghost…” It was all gone, leaving him with nothing but certainty regarding who had stolen the life from the woman he loved. “I went to Tasha’s place, made sure the kids weren’t there, pulled a gun on her—“

“Stop,” Adrian clenched his fist around the evidence bag. “I don’t…the details…I c-can’t.”

“I couldn’t do it, A,” Tasha had confessed once he’d shown her the earring, then she tried to twist him up with lies about LaKeisha being a rat. “She accepted that she had to die for what she’d done, she turned around so I could do it, but then she asked me to take care of ‘Riq and Yas, and I just…I couldn’t. I couldn’t do it.”

“It’s okay, Tommy,” Adrian set the evidence bag aside and levered himself up, making room for his brother to sit beside him. “It’s okay. You don’t have to do it. It-it doesn’t have to be like that. You don’t have to do that.”

“I can’t just let what happened to LaKeisha go,” Tommy growled, collapsing onto the bed next to his brother. “That’s gotta be answered for.”

“It doesn’t have to be answered for in blood,” Adrian argued, draping his arm over his brother’s shoulders. “Tasha loved ‘Keisha like a sister. The guilt of what she did is going to eat her alive.”

“That’s not enough,” Tommy sniffled, tears of frustration welling in his eyes. “It doesn’t feel like enough. LaKeisha deserves more.”

“LaKeisha was focused on her son in her last moments. She was begging Tasha to think about Cash,” Adrian recalled, voice quivering. “She didn’t threaten Tasha or call for help. She was pleading for Tasha to think about Cash, who would take care of him without her. He was the only thing she could see that night, Tommy.”

“Cash’s dad will take care of him,” Tommy knew Kadeem pretty well, was confident he would be good father. “I-I can’t go back to the house, it was our home, the three of us. I could sell it, put the money in a trust or something, so Cash will have something to fall back on if things get tough, or for a college fund for when he’s older.”

“That’s a good idea,” Adrian nodded along with Tommy’s words. “He’ll be taken care of financially, gotta trust his dad to do the rest.”

“No one will ever love or care for that kid the way his mom did,” It broke Tommy’s heart to know his stepson would never feel that kind of love again. “He shouldn’t have to live without her. Tasha never should have taken ‘Keisha from him or me.”

“Do you want me to talk to the cops?” Adrian asked, swiping his fingers beneath his eyes. “She can go to jail. I know it’s not the solution you want, but it can be enough.”

“No, I ain’t gonna make you snitch on her,” Tommy wouldn’t put that burden on his brother. “I don’t know what the fuck to do.”

“Distance could help,” Adrian rubbed circles on his brother’s back. “You said you had to go, right? I think it’ll be good for you.”

“I’m gonna hook up with that Rodolfo guy in L.A. and spend some time with Jess,” He hadn’t liked the idea of leaving her and Charlie alone out west anyhow. “I already talked to her about it, the only concern we got is Mom.”

“Can’t leave her by herself,” Adrian seconded the opinion Jess had made that morning. “Kate loves you the most, she should be with you.”

“I’ve done over 30yrs of hard time with that woman,” As much as Tommy loved his mother, he needed a break from her. “It’s time you or Jess had a turn.”

“I’d love to help you out, I really would, but we don’t plan on settling in the first country we land in. We’re gonna travel for awhile, find a place that feels right,” Adrian was quick with the excuses to why he couldn’t be the one to take their mother on. “Some of those places may have stricter drug laws than we have here, if she gets caught buying blow…”

“Right,” The last thing they needed was Kate getting popped for cocaine possession in a foreign country. “Jess can’t take her when she’s got Charlie; Mom’s not exactly kid friendly.”

“We don’t have any other family that can take her.”

“You think it’s too early to put her in a home?”

“Tommy.”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Tommy grumbled, wondering why the hell Kate always had to be his problem. “Fine. She can come with me to Cali. I’ll get her set up with a place in Oceanside, but Jess is gonna have to help me out with her.”

“You two can work out a schedule or something,” Adrian patted him on the back. “Hey, uh, I told Craig he didn’t have to worry about that payment you put on them. A member of our family put three bullets in a member of theirs, so….”

“I guess that is worse than a hit that didn’t pan out,” It was a long shot that he would ever see a dime from those Cody fucks anyway. “You know, I didn’t think you’d resort to bribery to get him on board with your plan to take his brother out of the country.”

“It was either save him a couple hundred grand or give him free rein of your drug warehouse,” Adrian shrugged, suggesting that wasn’t a joke. “And since he’s cleaning up for his kid, I thought money was the best choice.”

“Cops cleared out the warehouse when they snatched up our guys,” Tommy had a dead connect, no product, and a crew rotting at county. “One of them, Spanky, Grim, or Roberto, they gave me up to Blanca. They told her I killed Poncho.”

“Poncho?” Adrian furrowed his brows. “That primera you shot for mouthing off?”

“Yeah,” Not his finest moment, admittedly. “If she had evidence to back it up, she would have taken me in, but someone who was there that day, one of my crew, they sold me out.”

“Grim’s been with you a long time, he would never roll on you,” Adrian said confidently. “I don’t know Roberto well enough to know what he’d do one way or another. If Spanky was going to throw someone under the bus to save his own ass, wouldn’t it be me? I killed his friend, he hates me for that, reminds me of it every time we cross paths.”

“Spanky ain’t stupid enough to mess with my family,” Ratting on Tommy would get the bitch killed, but snitching on his family would get him tortured and then killed in the most brutal fashion imaginable. “If he’s the one talking, I’ma have to deal with that.”

“We’ll add it to your growing list between a good night’s sleep and dodging the Cevillos,” Adrian sighed, noting the dark circles under his brother’s eyes. “You look so tired.”

“I’ll be all right,” He promised, rising from the bed. “Look, uh, Tariq gave me a beat on something this morning, a recording that could send me to prison for the rest of my goddamn life, so I gotta go handle that, can’t put it off any longer.”

“Jesus Christ,” Adrian scrubbed a hand over his forehead. “Be careful, huh? Try not to start anymore fires.”

“No promises.”

* * *

There wasn’t much Craig could do in New York when he didn’t really know anyone and sightseeing wasn’t his thing. He tried to keep busy to stave off the boredom, walking the streets back and forth from the hospital and his hotel, sticking close to Deran without crowding him. Following his chat with Adrian, he needed that walk to think things over, and after he’d done some of that, all he could do was call his brother.

“_Something wrong with Deran?”_

“He’s good,” Craig hadn’t seen his baby brother in such a calm mood since he was a teenager. “He’s really looking forward to his trip.”

“_Where are you with all that?”_

“I still don’t want him to go,” It was hard for him to get right with the idea of putting so much distance between them and basically splitting their family apart. “But with all this shit Adrian’s got in my head, I can’t help but think we each should just pick a hemisphere and stay there.”

“_What did he say to you?”_

“He brought up how every family member we’ve lost, ‘cept maybe Julia, was killed by another member,” Deaths that could be blamed on betrayal, brought on by a lack of trust and loyalty – the two things they relied on the most. “He thinks we’re all gonna end up killing one another other, like his family’s doing to each other.”

“_You want me to tell you he’s wrong?”_

“Yeah, I do, but I know you can’t,” Craig didn’t need to hear another lie, there’d been too many of those told already. “This is on Smurf, you know? She pitted us against each other so many times, made it impossible for us to trust each other.”

“_We might have a chance if we didn’t live how we lived.”_

“What, you mean change careers or something?” Did they really have to stop pulling jobs and go legit to be a real family? “Is that what you want?”

“_I don’t know what I want, Craig.”_

“I don’t know how to do anything else, Pope,” He never finished school and the skills he did have wouldn’t put him in a position to earn well enough to provide for his family. “I got a kid to raise now; I can’t afford to go broke.”

“_You want Nick to grow up in this life too? Are you gonna bring him on his first job when he’s strong enough to hold a gun steady?”_

“No!” The last thing he wanted was for his son to follow in his footsteps, or Renn’s for that matter. “I just want to be able to take care of him.”

“_We have Deran’s bar and the buildings Smurf left us. We’re not gonna go broke overnight, but we’re not going to be able to afford all the toys anymore either.”_

“We don’t need the toys,” They were adults now, they had to start acting like it. “So, that’s it, we’re done?”

“_We still have one last score to settle.”_

“Survivalists?”

“_They’ve been asking questions around town. I think they’re getting ready to make a move.”_

“Shit,” It was bound to happen sooner or later after the shitstorm Smurf kicked up. “All right. I’ll get a flight out in the morning.”

“_Not a word to Deran about this.”_

“He’d be useless to us anyway, he’s too injured to fight,” The safest place for their brother was somewhere far away from Oceanside. “Stay close to Renn and Nick for me. We ripped off those people and Smurf killed their dad. I don’t want them taking it out on my family.”

“_I won’t let Renn or Nick get hurt.”_

* * *

Adrian floated in and out of consciousness between visits, giving himself a few minutes of a peace and quiet before his next guest knocked on the door. If it were a nurse or doctor coming through, he usually didn’t stir, having become used to their poking and prodding throughout his stay. Tommy and Craig both had a way of clamoring in with a slam of the door and stomp of their feet, while more often than not Deran just hopped into bed with him, jostling both their injuries in the process. Jess was the sweet one, rousing him with a kiss to his forehead before her sweetness turned sour.

“You scared the hell out of me,” She gripped his chin painfully between her fingers, nails digging into his skin. “Don’t ever do it again.”

“Next time someone shoots at me, I’ll duck,” He joked, thankfully earning a sharp glare instead of a slap across the face for it. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. I know it’s not your fault,” Jess released his chin and smoothed out the indents her nails had left on his face. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner. Tommy didn’t think it was safe.”

“It’s not,” They were surrounded by enemies, some closer than others. “Tommy fill you in about Tasha?”

“Yeah. Yeah, he did,” She sighed, dropping heavily into the chair next to the bed. “I can’t believe it. I can’t…I can’t reconcile the woman I’ve known as my sister, my daughter’s godmother, with the brutality in ‘Keisha’s murder.”

“I get it,” He’d been there and still couldn’t quite wrap his head around it. “Tommy’s not going to kill her, I don’t know if that makes you feel better or worse.”

“I don’t want her dead, she’s still…” His sister’s voice grew hoarse as she continued. “She’s still our family. She’s our sister. Her children are our niece and nephew.”

“Our loyalties can’t be split here, Jess. Tommy needs us. If he thinks he can lose us to her, to the St. Patrick side of our family, he will crumble,” It wasn’t going to be easy to cut out an entire branch of their family tree, but they had to do it, for Tommy’s sake. “This is the compromise that keeps Tasha alive and Tommy from losing it entirely.”

“I get the Tasha of it, I do,” Jess acknowledged, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “But Jamie and the kids?”

“I don’t know how else to do this, Jess,” The only way to save their brother from himself was to prove, without a doubt, that they were loyal to him above all others. “We don’t have to do it cold turkey or whatever. We can ease our way out of this, disentangle the family ties.”

“Is that really what you want?”

“It’s what Tommy needs,” Tommy had to come first for them, they owed him that. “I’m at a loss here, Jess. If you’ve got a better idea…”

“What if the cops find evidence to link Tasha to LaKeisha’s murder?” Jess drummed her fingers over her legs, as if she needed something to do with her hands. “I’m listed as the guardian for Tariq and Yas if something happens to her and Jamie. Do you really think Jamie can take care of them while he’s out campaigning if she goes to jail? He’s barely been there for them since he opened the club, if he goes on the road, they’ll be left with Estelle full time. Maybe she can handle Yas, but not ‘Riq, not with all he’s going through.”

“That kids are innocent in all this,” They were collateral damage to the choices the adults in their lives were making. “Go with your conscience, Jess, whatever feels right to you.”

“Nothing about any of this feels right, not Tasha killing LaKeisha or getting away with it,” Jess wrung her hands as she tried to make sense of it all. “Not the kids getting caught in the crossfire or Tommy using some little girl to get a tape—“

“Wait. What?”

“His lawyer, Proctor, I guess he gave his daughter a recording of Tommy confessing to killing Lobos,” Jess revealed, the burden of that knowledge weighing on her shoulders. “He told me he wouldn’t kill her, but he’s going to get that recording from her one way or another. I-I can’t be sure what he’s going to do or how far he’s going to go to get it. You know how he is, Adrian, he gets angry and blacks out and…bad things happen.”

“All right,” Adrian didn’t panic, he carefully removed the pulse oximeter from his index finger and pressed the call button on the panel of the bed, knowing he couldn’t do what he had to do while trapped in the hospital. “Jess, there’s a backpack under the bed with some clothes in it—“

“What are we doing here, Adrian?”

“I’m going to check myself out so I can find Tommy,” He couldn’t let their brother make a mistake he couldn’t take back. “I need to call Deran, let him know I’m leaving. He’ll freak if he comes back and I’m not here.”

“He’s in the waiting room finishing his hamburger,” Jess said, leaning down to grab the bag out from under the bed. “We can tell him on our way out.”

“Yeah, oka— Hey. How come he gets a hamburger and I don’t?”

“We bought you one, but the nurse wouldn’t let me bring it in.”

“You couldn’t sneak it in your purse?”

“Do I look like I have a purse to you?” Jess groused, dumping the backpack onto the bed. “I’ll buy you one once we’re out of here. If you’re good, I'll get you a milkshake too.”

“I’ll be good.”

“We’ll see.”

“I will.”

“Uh huh.”

* * *

If Deran were smarter, he would have returned to Craig’s hotel instead of making himself an accessory to whatever Adrian’s brother had going, but as it turned out, his need to remain in close proximity to Adrian substantially outweighed his fear of potentially being charged with kidnapping of an underage girl. Jess, on the other hand, had taken her own child into account and opted not to involve herself further in the matter, trusting Adrian to get a handle on it while she dealt with something else. In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Adrian didn’t seem as worried about it as he should have been, that is until they arrived at the loft and saw who had been left on babysitting duty.

“Yeah, this is way worse than I was expecting,” Adrian commented, observing his mother braid a very irritated pre-teen girl’s hair. “Mom, what the fu—What are you doing here?”

“Tommy called, said he needed a favor, I thought it was a gram or an eight ball, but he had me doing this instead,” Kate gestured toward the child. “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be in the hospital?”

“He’s supposed to be, yeah,” Deran wasn’t entirely comfortable with Adrian checking himself out early, but it’s not like he could have stopped him. “Where’s Tommy?”

“He went to set terms with my aunt Delores, the recording he wants for my life,” The little girl said, fidgeting the locket pendant on her necklace as she spoke.

“Right.”

“Elisa Marie, this is my youngest, Adrian,” Kate took it upon herself to make introductions. “And his boyfriend, De—“

“No need to exchange names,” The less the kid knew about Deran the better. “You should sit down, A.”

“You too,” Adrian grunted as they made their way to the couch, giving the girl and older woman wide berth as they took their own seats. “Uh, Elisa Marie, are you okay?”

“I guess,” She replied, dropping her hands to her lap. “I’d rather be at home.”

“I’d rather be back on the morphine drip,” Adrian quipped dryly. “So…”

“I’ll get you an oxy and something strong to drink,” Kate volunteered, standing from the couch. “Mama needs a little pick-me-up anyway.”

“Uh huh,” Adrian exhaled slowly as his mother disappeared into the kitchen. “Thanks, Ma.”

“My mom was a junkie too,” Elisa Marie mentioned casually. “That’s why she’s dead.”

“We don’t need to share life stories,” Adrian said dismissively. “It’s not going to change things for you here.”

“I’m guessing we’re not letting her go,” Deran mumbled, voice barely above a whisper. “You’re surprisingly calm about this kidnapping thing.”

“Tommy doesn’t have nefarious or explicit intentions toward her. Kate giving her a new haircut is the worst that could happen to her here,” Adrian muttered sluggishly as he fought the exhaustion overtaking his body. “If it was Craig holding an underage girl against her will I’d be concerned.”

“Craig likes almost-legal girls,” Which wasn’t okay by any standards, but wasn’t quite as bad as the alternative. “Not little ones.”

“It’s still creepy.”

“Here you go, baby,” Kate returned with a pill bottle and a glass filled to the brim with something bearing a strong scent. “This’ll make you feel better.”

“I’ll take that,” Deran snagged the liquor for himself. “Mixing alcohol and pain killers probably isn’t a good idea with what’s going on.”

“Huh,” Kate narrowed her eyes. “Didn’t take you for a killjoy.”

“No, he’s right,” Adrian said as he knocked back a few pills, swallowing them dry. “I’ll save that for when the kid’s gone. Getting stupid isn’t a good idea right now.”

“Maybe you should have told your brother that before he started kidnapping kids,” Deran griped, taking a long swig from the tumbler. “I know he’s going through some shit, but—“

“I’ll talk to him,” Adrian vowed as he took his vibrating phone out of his pocket and checking the caller ID. “It’s Tariq.”

“You know Tariq?” Elisa Marie exclaimed with raised brows. “How?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Adrian countered, pulling himself up to his feet. “I’ll take this in the other room.”

“Tariq’s my friend,” Elisa Marie turned to Deran when she was given the cold shoulder by Adrian. “How do you know him?”

“I don’t,” Deran had met the kid a couple times, but they had never held a conversation. “I’m not from around here.”

“What happened to you?” The girl asked, motioning to the bandages peaking over his shirt collar. “How did you get hurt?”

“Wrong place, wrong time,” That’s all Deran would say on the matter to anyone not directly involved. “Nothing that’s any of your business.”

“Do you know Tommy very well?”

“No,” Deran got the feeling only close family really knew Tommy. “Don’t want to either.”

“Oh,” Elisa Marie’s shoulders slumped. “He’s that bad?”

“All men are bad in their own way,” Kate interjected as she slipped on her jacket and turned to Deran. “You and Adrian got this, right? I’m gonna head home.”

“Uh…” Deran did not like that idea at all. “Two grown men holding a little girl against her will…”

“Yeah, you’ll be fine,” Kate brushed off his concern as she made a beeline to the door. “See ya later.”

“Sure,” Deran flinched as the door slammed shut behind Kate. “Great.”

“You could let me go,” Elisa Marie suggested, notes of hope in her tone. “That other guy is in the kitchen, you could tell him I ran out and you couldn’t catch me.”

“You probably could have run out at any time while Cocaine Kate was watching you,” Deran was surprised she hadn’t, it wouldn’t have been difficult to give the older woman the slip. “Look, I don’t think Tommy’s going to hurt you. He just wants the recording your family has of him, the one you and your aunt let Tariq listen to this morning.”

“Tariq said he didn’t recognize the voice on the recording,” Elisa Marie scowled, hands finding her locket once more. “He lied.”

“Everyone lies, kid,” Deran offered her an important life lesson and noticed something peculiar in her movements. “Do you know what a tell is?”

“A tell?”

“It’s an unconscious gesture people make when they’re lying or nervous.”

“Okay?” Elisa Marie furrowed her brows. “What does…Why does it matter?”

“It matters because every time the recording you have is mentioned…” Deran reached out and grasped the chain of her necklace. “You grab at your locket.”

“Hey!” The little girl yelped as the necklace was ripped from her neck. “That’s mine!”

“You’ll get it back,” Deran popped open the locket to find the microSD card stashed inside. “I just wanted this.”

“It’s not the recording—“

“No more bullshit, kid,” Deran popped the SD card into the slot on his phone, turning the volume up all the way so they could listen to the audio file. “Let’s let it speak for itself.”

Contrary to the little girl’s claim, it was Tommy’s voice that came through the speakers of Deran’s phone.

> “_Hey Ruiz, you know what it’s like to be betrayed?”_

Another voice joined Tommy’s, one unfamiliar to Deran, but could only belong to the Ruiz person Tommy was speaking with on the audio file.

> “_Yes, I do.”_
> 
> “_Yeah. I know. I know. Somebody you trust constantly looking you in the eye but lying to your face… There’s no going back. That’s how he does it…. One side of his mouth telling you what he thinks you want to hear and the other side giving you just enough to make you think he actually gives a fuck about you and what you think. But he don’t care about what happens to you. He just uses you until he don’t need you no more. That’s what doing Lobos was about.”_
> 
> “_Tommy, it’s been a long night. What do you say we leave it alone, huh?”_
> 
> “_Me and Ghost killed him to start over, but it was never about that. Just like going from corner boys to running the biggest shop in New York fucking City wasn't about being gangsters. It was all for him, all so he could find another way to get out.”_

That was it. That was all the confirmation Deran needed to know the recording was legitimate. He didn’t need to listen to it in full to know the truth.

“Not the recording, huh?” Deran chastised the little girl as he turned off his phone screen. “You’re lucky, you know that?”

“How?”

“I think I just saved your life.”

“I thought you said you didn’t think Tommy would hurt me….”

“I also said everyone lies.”

* * *

For better or worse, their lives in New York had always been ruled by Tommy. His work and his affiliations had always dictated where they could go and whom they could see. Jess and Adrian had never been able to make friends outside the life Tommy had built around them; even the trashy ones Adrian hung out with could be tracked back to the drug world, Tommy’s world, in one way or another. The isolation, Jess suspected, was why they had clung to the St. Patricks so desperately for a connection.

Jamie had always been there, since before Jess could remember, before Adrian was even born. He had taken Jess and Adrian on as his own family without hesitation, caring for them alongside Tommy, doing everything he could to protect them from the life he and Tommy chose to lead. Jamie had always given them a since of safety and stability that Tommy and Kate couldn’t.

Tasha had been the missing piece of their family unit when Jamie had brought her into their lives. She fit in so easily, as if she was always meant to be there. Tasha had propped Jamie and Tommy up with little effort, reeling them in and keeping them in line when they were on the brink of losing control. Tasha was the first strong woman any of them had ever had in their lives.

It was Tasha who taught Jess how to be strong, how to protect herself and her family, because you couldn’t trust a man to be there when you needed him. When it came to motherhood or being a woman in a man’s world, Jess had taken Tasha’s work like scripture, taking it all in and practicing it in her own life. She knew Tasha was flawed like the rest of them, it was part of being human, but hindsight being what it was, Jess couldn’t help but wonder if she’d been so wrong about Tasha or if she’d just spent a lifetime underestimating her propensity for violence.

There wasn’t anything Tasha could say when Jess showed up unannounced at her door. She didn’t try to defend herself, but she didn’t turn Jess away either. She invited Jess in and they sat together at the kitchen table, sharing a bottle of wine and locked in a ball of wills: who would break first?

“I’m trying to understand,” Jess cracked, unable to sit in unbearable silence any longer. “I’m trying to understand how we got here.”

“I don’t know,” Tasha sighed, topping off her glass. “It it what it is.”

“It’s not,” Nothing just happened on a whim, there was always a reason. “Did you really think LaKeisha would turn in Tariq? He was her godson.”

“That cop, Blanca, she was pretty damn convincing,” Tasha muttered, swirling the wine in her glass. “’Keisha, she’s been working against me since she and Tommy hooked up. I couldn’t risk that she hated me enough to use my kid to hurt me.”

“Jesus Christ, Tasha, she was your best friend for over twenty-years,” Two decades of history had to count for something. “All the shit she’s seen, if she wanted to hurt you, she wouldn’t have had to go through ‘Riq to do it.”

“She already took Tommy, turned him against me,” Tasha growled. “I wasn’t going to let her take my son too.”

“She wasn’t going to rat, Tasha.”

“I didn’t know that!”

“You should have!” It didn’t matter how bad things had gotten between them, after twenty goddamn years of friendship and sisterhood, the trust that had been built in that time should have remained. “How can you spend over half your life with someone and then put a bullet in her head at the first sign of trouble?”

“I loved LaKeisha, but if the choice was between trusting her and protecting my son, I will always choose my son,” Tasha showed no remorse or guilt for the action she’d taken. “It is my job to protect my kids no matter what or who the threat is.”

“LaKeisha wasn’t a threat to you or Tariq,” If she had just waited until she had the facts instead of just reacting, LaKeisha might still be alive. “Did you even consider that the cop was lying to you, trying to trip you up so you’d make a mistake?”

“Of course I did,” Tasha huffed, taking a long sip of her wine. “I told you, I couldn’t take the risk that she was telling the truth, that LaKeisha had snitched on us.”

“Why not go to Tommy? He wouldn’t risk ‘Riq either,” Tommy loved their nephew like his own son, nothing would stop him from protecting that kid. “He knew the cops were pressing ‘Keisha. He could have told you she wasn’t going to give them anything about the organization or Tariq.”

“Tommy decided that LaKeisha and her son were his family, they came first to him,” Tasha sneered, as if that were the ultimate betrayal, the last straw so to speak. “He promised me… When ‘Riq and Raina were born, he promised me he would always be there for them, he would always protect them, but if I had gone to him about ‘Keisha, it didn’t matter how things were, he would have protected her.”

“Not if she was a threat to the family,” If Tommy truly believed ‘Keisha would turn on them he would have dealt with it, dealt with her. It wouldn’t have been a choice he made, but a rage-induced blackout like the one he suffered the night Holly confessed to sending men to kill Jamie. “He has always stepped up to protect this family, even at the expense of himself.”

“There’s no way I could’ve known his loyalties hadn’t shifted,” Tasha argued, staring blankly at the label on the wine bottle. “You’re a mother now, Jess; you understand the role we play.”

“What role is that?”

“It all falls to us. We carry the weight of every decision made within our family,” Tasha remarked, gulping down what was left of her drink. “Then we clean up the mess however we have to. The father’s aren’t the great protectors they want to believe they are. It’s us, Jess. It’s all us.”

“That’s your big justification for this? A mother’s duty?” Jess scoffed. “LaKeisha was a mother too, and if she had ratted, it would have been to protect her son.”

“I would have understood that,” Tasha murmured softly. “I hope she understood, in the end, that I was just protecting my son.”

“You weren’t protecting anything, Tasha,” In the end, there was no threat, that was the saddest part. “You killed her for nothing.”

“I did what I had to do.”

* * *

Adrian and Deran weren’t exactly in the condition to be babysitting a kid, and once they had the recording that job should have been done and over with anyway. Unfortunately, Tommy wasn’t so certain the SD card was the only copy and decided to continue with his ransom demand with Elisa Marie’s aunt, just to see if she’d give up another in exchange for her niece’s life. Adrian and Deran were left with nothing to do but keep a watchful eye on the little girl who, let’s be honest, could have made a run for the door at any time without either of them having the strength to chase her down and force her back in the apartment.

When a knock sounded at the door, Adrian half-expected it to the be the cops, believing Elisa Marie could have contacted them somehow when he or Deran’s backs were turned – it certainly would have explained the girls calm demeanor. If it were the police, Adrian wasn’t about to get nabbed for holding an underage girl against her will, he sent her upstairs to hide in Cash’s old room, and instructed Deran to keep her quiet. Thankfully, it was only Jamie at the door and not the NYPD.

“You scared the crap out of me,” Adrian let out a long sigh of relief as he let his brother into the loft. “I didn’t know you were coming by. If you’re looking for Tommy—“

“I’m here for you. I went by the hospital first, they said you’d checked yourself out AMA,” Jamie clucked disapprovingly. “Since you’re feeling better, I wanted to invite you to a party I’m hosting at Truth tonight.”

“To celebrate your run for Lt. Governor on Lorette Walsh’s ticket?” Adrian had caught the official press conference announcement on TV that afternoon. “I’m not sure I’m up for a party, but I was going to call and congratulate you. It’s a big deal, right?”

“It is. Yes, it is,” Jamie grinned from ear-to-ear. “Everything is falling into place. This is my future. In the governor’s office, I can make some real changes. It’s going to change my life. _**I**_ am going to change my life and no one can stop me.”

“I don’t know, man, a scandal involving your son being a drug dealer and a cop killer could seriously derail your campaign,” Adrian hated to rain on his parade, but it had to be said. “Although, from the terrified call I got from ‘Riq earlier, I guess you’ve already figured out how to avoid that by having him turn himself in for Ray Ray’s murder before you hit the campaign trail.”

“I know how it looks from the outside,” Jamie started, buttoning his suit jacket, feeling some unconscious need to appear professional while justifying throwing his only son under the bus. “But this is the best thing for him.”

“For him or your political campaign?” Adrian couldn’t help but find the selfish motives behind the decision to use the kid as a sacrificial lamb of sorts. “It’d be awfully hard to get that dead-daughter sympathy vote if word gets out that your son put’s poison on the streets and bullets into law enforcement, but throwing your own child in prison would make you look tough on crime to the voters. And having him locked up nice and tight will prevent him from causing too much trouble for you while you’re in office.”

“This has nothing to do with my campaign,” The lip slipped from Jamie’s tongue with practiced ease. “This is what will straighten him out. He does a few months inside, then he’ll come home and get back on track.”

“A few months? He killed a cop,” Dirty cop or not, the equally corrupt justice system was stacked against his nephew. “They will charge him as an adult. He will go away for the rest of his life.”

“I am not going to let that happen,” Jamie acted as though he had complete and total control over the outcome of the situation. “I am going to get him the best defense attorney money can buy. We are going to work with the prosecutors to get Tariq a deal. Once I’m in office, I’ll call in some favors and have him out by his twenty-first birthday at the latest.”

“It takes years to build relationships with the people you’d need to call in favors with,” Favors weren’t just handed out like candy as soon as you were sworn into office. “You’ve never held public office, Jamie. You don’t have the kind of connections Lorette Walsh and Rashad Tate have spent their entire careers forging. You’re not even qualified to hold government office; you’re a club owner and a former drug dealer.”

“I’m trying to save my son!” Jamie shouted, temper rising as his ambitions smacked into logic and history. “He needs to learn that actions have consequences.”

“What about our actions? Hmm?” They’d all done things that would carry life sentences if tried in a court of law. “How come we get to skate, but your teenage son has to pay a price? You can’t pay for your sins through him, Jamie.”

“I want him to be better than us.”

“He won’t survive long enough to be anything other than what he is!” Tariq thought he was tough, but in the face of hardened criminals in a maximum-security prison, he was just a little boy waiting to be torn apart. “You were a grown man who came up on the streets and you barely survived a few weeks inside. Tariq is a kid who grew up among the rich and insufferable, he’s not going to last five minutes. You do this to him, you’ll be burying another child by the end of the month.”

“Hey! I didn’t come here to talk about this,” Jamie snapped, abruptly changing the subject. “I came with good news for you.”

“Good news for me?” To say Adrian was skeptical would have been an understatement. “I’m listening.”

“I know how we handled Julio’s death upset you—“

“You didn’t handle it,” It was the lack of closure that was so upsetting. “It wasn’t the right time for revenge, that’s what you said. I always thought that was funny, ‘cause a few weeks later, when Raina was killed, it was all hands on deck to hunt down the killer immediately, goddamn the timing.”

“That was different,” Jamie claimed, voice hardening. “That was my daughter, her death had to be answered for, and it couldn’t wait. Now, I loved Julio, he was family, but…”

“Save it,” Adrian didn’t want more excuses, he’d heard enough of them since Julio had been murdered. “What’s this good news you have about it?”

“The Toros Locos delivered the beating that killed Julio, I put a bullet in Uriel myself when he copped to it,” Jamie boasted proudly. “But I know the ones you blame the most are the ones who set it up.”

“Uriel and his crew, they were just weapons,” The Toros Locos wouldn’t have risked crossing Tommy or Ghost on their own, they had to have been coerced into doing so. “Dre and Cristobal, they are the ones responsible for what happened to Julio.”

“Cristobal is locked up in a federal prison, has been since Dre snitched on him and Alicia Jimenez,” Jamie offered nothing that wasn’t common knowledge. “Well, I think you’ll be happy to know that Dre was arrested this afternoon for Jason’s murder.”

“You set him up for Dre’s murder?” It was a risky maneuver, especially given Dre’s habit of selling out even the most dangerous criminals to save his own ass. “You actually think that’s going to stick?”

“There’s no reason to think it won’t,” Jamie determined, unconcerned by the other man’s devious nature. “I know this isn’t the outcome you were hoping for, but he is going to pay his betrayals against this family.”

“Right,” Until the cops decided the murder of a high-ranking mafia member wasn’t a serious offense and made yet another deal with Dre, his freedom in exchange for information on Tommy and Ghost’s organization. “Well, thanks for telling me, I guess.”

“Julio’s murder was unfinished business for all of us, but now it’s done,” Jamie smiled, at peace with how it all turned out. “Time to let it go.”

“Do you think Dre will let it go?” Adrian had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that the other man was going to play ‘let’s make a deal’ with the police again. “You don’t think he’s going to want revenge on you or Tommy for setting him up?”

“The police have him on murder charges, if they make a deal with him it will be to plead down those charges for a lesser sentence. They’re not just going to release him. Dre is done,” Jamie had it all figured out and tied up in a neat little bow. “We need to let all this go, Adrian. We can’t keep living our lives trying to get revenge for all we’ve lost. If we want a future, if we want to achieve our goals, we have to let it all go, let the past be the past.”

“Yeah, okay, Jamie,” They would all let it go until the next time someone they loved was murdered. “The past is the past.”

* * *

Convincing Kate to leave New York was going to be an uphill battle, there was no way around that. Jess was prepared for that battle, armed with unwavering stubbornness, pictures of Charlie, and packing boxes. She wasn’t going to take no for an answer, she was willing to you use photograph of her daughter to play on Kate’s emotions, and wasn’t afraid to load up her mother’s belonging and send them to Oceanside to force the woman’s hand.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Kate crowed when she came home to find the place in a complete state of disarray. “What’re you doing with all my shit?”

“What’s it look like, Ma?” Jess didn’t let her mother’s presence deter her, she continued to neatly organize various knickknacks into a box. “Shouldn’t take long. We’ll have you all loaded up and ready to go by the end of the week.”

“Where is it that you think I’m going?”

“From the white powder residue on your nose, I’d say rehab for starters,” The relapse didn’t come as a surprise, Jess didn’t let it bother her as much as she had when she was a kid. “Don’t worry, there are plenty of ‘em in Southern California. We’ll check you into one with a nice seaside view, okay?”

“Southern California? Where your father is?” Kate balked at the idea. “Why the hell would I go there?”

“Oh, I don’t know, because Tommy’s moving there,” If she didn’t follow him out there, she would lose her meal ticket as well as access to her cocaine supply. “I’m there. Your granddaughter is there.”

“I’ve lived in New York my entire life,” Kate huffed, tossing her purse onto the sofa. “I’ll leave when I’m dead.”

“You would rather die out here, broke and alone, than be with your family?” Jess wasn’t afraid to lay it on as thick as she needed to in order to convince her mother to join them in California. “Do you hate us that much?”

“This guilt shtick you got going would be more effective if you worked up some tears,” Kate retorted, unimpressed with her daughter’s attempt at a guilt trip. “What do you even want me in California for?”

“I would like Charlie to have at least one grandparent in her life,” Nico had never even laid eyes on his granddaughter and Carter’s parents had moved away years ago. “She’s only met Carter’s mom and dad once in a video chat. And Dad, well…”

“I guess compared to your father I am the best you’ve got,” Kate ceded to her point, but wasn’t quite ready to give in to her request. “I’m not exactly grandma material, you know.”

“I’m not asking you to knit booties for her or whatever,” Jess bit back a comment about how Kate wasn’t exactly mother material either, but that hadn’t stopped her from popping out three kids. “I just want you to be present for her…and me.”

“You?”

“We didn’t get to spent a lot of time together while I was growing up,” The distance between Queens and Oceanside had taken its toll on their relationship, and those times when Jess really needed another woman in her life, through puberty and high school, she was left to make-do on her own. “I thought, maybe, we could make up for lost time or something.”

“I got to know my mother, the only thing I learned was that I hated the bitch,” Kate snickered, picking an empty box up off the floor. “I don’t want you to get to know me and decide you hate me like I hated her.”

“I already know who you are, Mom,” Jess had a clear and unclouded picture of the kind of person her mother was. “I don’t want you to be here all alone. You belong in Oceanside, with your family. We need you to be there for us. I need you to be there.”

“You are so full of shit.”

“It’s not safe for us here anymore, I’m desperate,” Jess dropped the act once called out, opting for something closer to the truth instead. “Tommy has too many enemies here, and if you stay, they might try to use you to get to him. So you’re coming with us whether you like it or not, it’s just going to go a lot smoother if you come willingly.”

“Well, when you put it like that….”

* * *

Possession of the SD card alone wasn’t enough to put Tommy at ease when he couldn’t be sure it held the only recording that implicated him in not one, but two murders. It was, however, enough for Tommy to retrieve Elisa Marie from his loft so he could question her himself while giving Adrian and Deran a break from the babysitting duty they hadn’t signed up for. The boys seemed relieved to be rid of the girl, but Tommy chalked that up to their pain and fatigue, and possibly the kid’s Chatty Cathy behavior just annoying the hell out of them, which seemed more likely once Tommy got her back in the car and received an earful himself.

Elisa Marie had barely paused her chatter long enough to take a breath, and he did it best to tune her out until she started shooting off questions about the engagement ring she found in the car’s center console. Tommy’s sharp rebuke did little to shut her up, but did prompt her to change topics and try to bond with him over their drug-addicted mothers. He recognized that she was trying to humanize herself in his eyes so he wouldn’t kill her later, and when that didn’t work she tried to get in his head, bluntly asking if he killed her father. Tommy was never so grateful to have his phone ring than at that moment, giving him the perfect opportunity to pull the car over to the curb and end the conversation with the girl.

“Fuck. Thank you,” He whispered to the unknown caller as he brought the cellphone to his ear. “Fuck is this?”

“_It’s me, boss.”_

“Grim?” Tommy had been meaning to visit the recently incarcerated, but he hadn’t had the chance as of yet. “You out the can already?”

“_No, I got a burner phone inside. I think I know who jammed us up at the warehouse.”_

“Yeah?” Tommy still believed it was Ghost had sent the cops to pick up his crew and confiscate his product, it was proof he was lacking. “I’d be real curious to know that shit.”

“_Dre.”_

“How the fuck would Dre know where my warehouse was?”

“_We kept him in the trunk when we had him, but the cops could’ve tracked his ankle monitor, right?”_

“Fuck.”

“_It had to be Dre. You should’ve seen how spooked he was when he saw me and Spanky in the cafeteria today.”_

“Motherfucker’s in there with you?” That kept him firmly out of Tommy’s reach. “When you had him at the warehouse, none of ya’ll mentioned Poncho or me blowing him away or some shit, right?”

“_Nah, boss, we know better than that. Why?”_

“Someone dropped Poncho’s body on me,” He would give Grim the benefit of the doubt; he’d been a loyal soldier for years. “It best not be someone inside my operation.”

“_I’ll keep my ear to the ground, see if something pops off.”_

“I appreciate that,” He would express the appreciation with a nice sum deposited into Grim’s commissary account. “This Dre shit, B.G., it’s long overdue. If the opportunity presents itself—“

“_I’ll handle it.”_

“I’ll be grateful,” The deader Dre was, the safer they all would be. “I know the dirty work is out of your comfort zone.”

“_I can do it, boss.”_

“Keep me up to speed on that,” Tommy wanted confirmation the minute that shit was resolved. “You’re a real one, B.G. I’ma see about getting you some protection in there, all right?”

_“Thanks, boss.”_

“See you when you’re on the outside again, homie,” Tommy let that be his goodbye and hung up the phone, an unsettling realization dawning on him. “Dre’s behind all this shit. Ghost ain’t been the one messing with my business, it was Dre the whole fucking time.”

“Wait, wait,” Elisa Marie gulped as she picked up on a shift in things. “Who’s Dre? Where are we going? Wh-What are you doing?”

“I was wrong about my brother,” He thought Ghost had lied to him about Proctor, but it turned out Proctor betrayed them both. He thought Ghost had shut down his drug store, but that shit wasn’t him either. Shit, even Ghost setting him up to kill his own father was more complicated than he originally thought. “I-I was wrong.”

“What are you gonna do with me?” Elisa Maria asked, shrinking in her seat as if she were trying to get away from him. “Are you going to kill me?”

“I’m taking you back to your aunt, safe and fucking sound,” He would resume his search for copies of the recording once he made things right with Ghost. “Now you listen real close. You tell your auntie I never touched a hair on your head. Got it?”

“Yes.”

* * *

The combination of oxy and bourbon mixed with general exhaustion had gotten the best of Adrian not long after Tommy had picked up Elisa Marie. Deran wasn’t concerned or surprised when he stretched out across the sofa and pillowed his head on Deran’s lap, falling asleep mid-conversation with Craig about where they planned to go when they were well enough to leave. The bruise-like circles beneath Adrian’s eyes were evidence of his need for a long, uninterrupted sleep, and Deran did his best to allow him that by keeping his cellphone on silent and his voice low as he poured over maps with his brother.

“Why don’t you guys go somewhere you haven’t been before?” Craig suggested, scrutinizing the list Deran and Adrian had put together while confined to hospital beds. “Rio, Costa Rica, Sydney, you’ve already surfed there.”

“These are just jumping off points, man,” They wanted to see the world before they settled down in once place. “Familiar first, then we branch out.”

“I don’t know if you can call it branching out when it’s just the best surf spots in the world,” Craig chuckled. “There’s more to the world than that, you know.”

“We break out into hives if we go too long without putting our boards in the water,” There was no way in hell either of them could live in a place, even temporarily, where they couldn’t get their feet wet. “We go into withdrawal.”

“You’re not gonna be surfing any time soon,” Craig noted, alluding to Deran’s injuries. “Maybe you should come home for a few weeks, heal up until you’re strong enough to get on your boards without winding up on your ass.”

“We’re not putting this off, Craig,” If they started making excuses to push the trip now, they would never stop, and they would never make it out of Oceanside. “I thought you were cool with this now?”

“I am, I’m just…” Craig trailed off and was ultimately saved from making excuses of his own when Adrian’s phone began to vibrate on the coffee table. “You should get that before it wakes him up.”

“I guess,” Deran sighed, snagging the phone off the table, careful not to disturb the man snoozing on his lap. “ID says it’s Tariq.”

“Who’s Tariq?” Craig asked as he folded up the map they’d been looking over. “Another brother?”

“Nephew,” Deran replied as he swiped his finger over the phone screen and brought it to his ear. “Hello?”

“_I need to talk to my uncle.”_

“He’s asleep,” Deran wasn’t going to wake him for anything short of an emergency. “Something wrong?”

“_Is Tommy there by chance?”_

“He left like an hour ago,” Deran hadn’t been watching the clock or waiting for his return. “I think your aunt Jess is at Kate’s house. Can she help you with whatever it is you need?”

“_I just need to know if anyone’s talked to Tommy in the last fifteen, thirty minutes.”_

“Tommy hasn’t checked in since he left,” He hadn’t said anything about calling or texting at a certain time or at all, but Deran assumed he would after dropping off Elisa Marie. “What’s going on, Tariq?”

“_I heard some Italians were out looking for him, the same ones that kidnapped me, and now he’s not answering his phone.”_

“I’ll call Jess, see if maybe she or Kate has heard from him,” He wouldn’t wake Adrian and worry him until he knew what was going on. “You should call your dad; maybe the two of them are working shit out.”

“_I’m outside Truth right now, I’ll ask him.”_

“I’ll call you back if I hear something, you do the same.”

“_Yeah, I will.”_

“All right.”

* * *

Jess didn’t go into panic mode when Deran had called asking about Tommy’s whereabouts or when he’d mentioned the potential threat on Tommy’s life. Her brother had a habit of disappearing when he needed to get his head on straight and was more than capable of taking care of himself. Still, as soon as she hung up with Deran she put in a call to Tommy, just to be safe.

Her first call went straight to voicemail, as did her second and the third, and a dozen text messages were left unanswered. Her anxiety spiked with every ‘you _have reached the voicemail of…_’ but she didn’t give up. She kept calling until her older brother’s disgruntled voice came over the line.

“_Jesus fucking Christ! What?”_

“Don’t take that tone with me,” Jess wasn’t afraid to use her mom voice to call her brother to heel if necessary. “You think I’m calling for shits and giggles?”

“_All right. All right, I’m sorry. I couldn’t answer, I was, uh, preoccupied.”_

“Preoccupied,” From anyone else, that wouldn’t be an ominous word. “With Italians?”

“_Motherfuckers boxed in my car, tried to kill me.”_

“Tommy, are you okay?”

“_I’m still breathing, that’s more than I can say for them.”_

“I don’t need the details,” The less she knew, the easier she would sleep at night. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“_How’d you know about the Italians?”_

“Tariq heard from someone that the Italians were looking for you,” She would have to thank their nephew later for the heads up. “He wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“_I am, no thanks to him.”_

“What’s that mean?”

“_I went to ‘Riq, told him I’d been wrong about Ghost, thought we both could go make peace with him together. Kid wasn’t having it. He was pissed that I’d even consider letting the shit between me and Ghost go.”_

“Okay,” That was unfortunate, but wasn’t all that unexpected. “He’s an angry kid, Tommy. Give him a some time.“

“_Jess, I told that kid I was going to see Ghost, a few minutes later, the Italians are waiting for me on the goddamn street. Before I smashed Vincent’s fucking skull in with my gun, he told me Tariq was the one who tipped him off to where I would be.”_

“For what purpose?” Jess couldn’t wrap her head around what possible motive their nephew could have for putting Tommy in danger. “He was so pissed off with you that he sent the Italians to kill you?”

“_Nah, sis, I think he was trying to keep me away from Ghost.”_

“Why?”

“_Something’s happening. I-I think something’s going down here tonight, and that fucking kid knows what it is, he just don’t want me to stop it.”_

“Wait, you’re there?” Jess felt her blood run cold. “Y-You’re at Truth?”

“_I wasn’t gonna let Vincent or Tariq stop me. I’m gonna find out what’s going on.”_

“Tommy, will you—“ The words of caution were lost to the unmistakable ‘pop’ of a gunshot sounded through the speaker over phone. “Tommy!”

“_It wasn’t me! It wasn’t me! It-it came from the club. Ghost!”_

“Tommy, I’m—“

“_You’re not doing shit. You’re gonna get Mom and get to my loft. Ain’t no one gonna make a move until you hear from you, you understand?”_

“Yeah. Yeah, I get it.”

* * *

When you lived the kind of life Tommy and Ghost did, there was always a chance you wouldn’t make it home at the end of the day. That was the risk they accepted when they made their first deal, back when they were nothing more than stupid kids who thought they were invincible. The older they got, the longer they were in the life, the more they came to realize it wasn’t a question of _**if**_ the life would be the end of theirs, but _**when**_ it would take them from the people they loved.

As teenagers, they would joke about going out together in a firefight, trying to prove themselves to Kanan or Breeze. They mellowed as they aged into adulthood, took the time to think things through instead of running head-long toward death in the name of playing the game. The streets were going to take them one way or another, no amount of brains or distance was going to change that, but Tommy had always hoped he would be the one to go first.

He always dreaded that there might come a day when he would have to take the long elevator ride up to the penthouse and deliver devastating news to Tasha and the kids. He never thought in a million years that one of them would have pulled the trigger or that he would hold his brother’s hand as he bled out on the dance floor of his own club. He never could’ve imagined that their family would be ripped apart, again and again, from the inside out.

His little brother’s well-founded fears of their family meeting its demise by their own hands rang in Tommy’s ears as he trudged up the stairs to the loft. The shock and numbness had yet to wear off by the time he pushed his way through the front door to address what was left of his family. Their silence was palpable as he stood before them, trying to find the right words to convey what he had witnessed that night.

“Ghost is…Ghost is dead,” He had to be blunt, callous, it was the only way he could fully prepare them for what came next. “Tariq killed him.”


	11. It's a New Dawn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd,  
Chapter title comes from: [Feeling Good by Avicii](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9v27qaLUUA)  
Gif sets: [Expensive & High Maintenance](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/613506597009932288/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-expensive-high), [Save Your Ass](https://stilinski-ortiz-dolan.tumblr.com/post/612779885929414656/loyalty-verse-fic-scene-save-your-ass-oh-and)
> 
> *Set during Power 6x13 - 6x15

The loft was more or less cleared out; only a few stray coffee cups remained in the cupboards. The place hadn’t felt so empty since Tommy had moved in with only the clothes on his back and a box of old vinyl records. The emptiness of it was startling, made the impending move feel all that more real.

“You okay, bro?” Jess asked, concerned as she nudged her elbow against his side. “Seconds thoughts?”

“No,” Even if staying in New York was an option, there was nothing left for Tommy there. “I wanna be out of here as soon as possible.”

“You don’t want to stay for the funeral?” Craig questioned, furrowing his brows. “That St. Patrick guy was like your brother, wasn’t he?”

“He was my brother,” There was no goddamn ‘like’ about it. “With all the press, the funeral ain’t gonna be nothing but a sideshow attraction.”

“Like Raina’s was,” Jess muttered dejectedly. “Maybe we can do a paddle out for him when we get home.”

“You ain’t gettin’ me on a surfboard,” More importantly, she wasn’t getting him in the ocean with sharks and shit. “We’ll figure something out for him, a way to say goodbye, but it ain’t gonna be that.”

“Fine. No paddle out. Pussy.”

“Look, I got a problem back home that could go off at any minute. I have a flight out in a couple of hours,” Craig mentioned, glancing between the siblings. “So whatever you called me over here for…”

“Actually, I was gonna ask you to drive my mom’s SUV to Oceanside, tow the trailer behind it,” Tommy would do it himself, but he had his own car to drive. “She can’t be trusted to drive herself. She’s flying out with Jess this afternoon.”

“I’m glad we’ve come to this weird kind of, I don’t know, friendliness or comradery where we can help each other out, but I can’t this time,” Craig said regretfully. “Pope can’t handle this shit on his own, and I’ve gotta make sure my girl and kid are safe.”

“Maybe we can help with that,” Jess proposed, formulating a plan. “Tommy, you hired those guys to look after me and Charlie because of the Codys—because of J, but he hasn’t proven to be a threat. He hasn’t tried to use us to retaliate for what you did to Smurf’s house. Maybe one or two of those guards could look after Renn and the baby until you guys get there.”

“I could make that work,” Tommy wouldn’t do that without some assurances, though. “Craig, I know you and Pope understand how shit is now. We got peace between our families. But before I pull a single member of security off my baby niece and her father, I need to know that _**every**_ member of your family is on board with this little peace treaty.”

“J won’t be a problem,” Craig vowed with the utmost confidence. “He burned his bridge with Trujillos. He doesn’t have anyone outside the family. He can’t afford to go against us.”

“Okay,” Tommy was willing to go along with that, within reason. “If you’re wrong, if one hair on my niece or her father’s head is harmed, I will kill that little motherfucker, and then I’m gonna kill you.”

“Fair enough.”

“So we’ll pull one of the guys off Charlie and Carter to help Pope protect Renn and the baby,” Jess put their ducks in a row. “Mom and I will get on a plane this afternoon. There’s a nice rehab that’ll have a room for her early next week. You two are going to drive out—any idea when you plan to leave?”

“This afternoon, tonight at the latest,” Tommy preferred to drive long distances in the cover of darkness. “As soon as shit’s settled here. Where we at with all that?”

“Adrian and Deran are finishing up at Mom’s, you’re supposed to be helping them take some of her stuff to storage,” Jess reminded him. “And I have to take Mom to Jamie’s will reading, apparently he left her something.”

“I gotta go clean up my hotel room, I made a bit of a mess,” Craig admitted sheepishly. “Then I guess I’ll go pick up some road trip snacks and supplies.”

“All right, we all got shit to do.”

* * *

Adrian was going to have a few words with whoever decided he and Deran, the injured of the group, were the best choice to finish packing up Kate’s house. Carrying heavy boxes down a flight of stairs and all the way out to the car wasn’t an easy task for those working at full capacity, factor in that both Adrian and Deran were down an arm, and all you had was a recipe for a really painful day. It’s not like Kate was much of a help, if she wasn’t getting excited over finding little vials of coke or a misplaced pill in every goddamn drawer, pocket, and closet she opened, she was removing personal belonging from boxes and storage tubs that had been ready to be loaded into the trailer.

“Look at this, Adrian. Look. Your brother says I pawn everything, but you see this?” Kate took a large crucifix dangling from a silver chain out of her jewelry box. “This was my grandfather’s, my mother’s father. He brought this over from the old country. He was a priest.”

“A priest?” Deran snickered. “That apple fell far and then rolled off a cliff, didn’t it?”

“Makes you wonder what Smurf’s descended from, huh?” Adrian would put money on a judge or some other form of law enforcement. “Ma, I just packed up that jewelry box and everything else off your dresser last night. Why are you unpacking it?”

“Your brother took your grandmother’s ring. Your sister’s going to have her pick of things. I want you to have this,” Kate draped the chain over his head, letting it slip to his neck so the crucifix could rest against his collarbone. “You remind me of my grandfather, you should have something of his. It suits you.”

“Suits me, yeah,” Adrian grimaced at the jewelry hanging from his throat. “It’ll go great with my board shorts.”

“I really hope you don’t plan to wear that thing regularly,” Deran blinked, an unreadable expression on his face. “I’m having some very conflicting feelings about religious roleplay.”

“It’s a family heirloom. Why do you gotta make it weird?” Adrian huffed, yanking the crucifix off his neck and stuffing it into his pocket. “Mom, I appreciate the gift, but can we please focus on getting these boxes in the trailer and U-Haul?”

“I think your christening gown is around here somewhere,” Kate ignored his plea as she scanned the mess that was once her bedroom, searching for the item in question. “All you kids were christened in that gown. Charlie needs to be too—I know your sister hasn’t baptized her yet. We can’t leave that gown behind.”

“The christening gown is in the chest with all the photo albums and important documents,” Things with sentimental value or importance were among the first things Adrian had packed the previous night. “It’s already in the car, which is where I’m taking this stuff.”

Adrian wrapped his mother’s jewelry box in a blanket for added protection, loaded it into a plastic tub with various other delicate items, and secured the lid. He lifted the tub with his good arm, balancing it against his side as he made his way out of the room and down the stairs, Deran trailing behind him with a box of his own.

“Your mom’s not taking this well,” Deran noted as they exited the front door to the SUV, U-Haul, and trailer in the driveway. “You sure it’s a good idea?”

“She’s not the type of person capable of functioning on her own,” Seeing as she didn’t have any other family or any friends to speak of, leaving her in the city by herself, thousands of miles away from her children and grandchild, just wasn’t an option. “She’ll be fine once she gets to Oceanside.”

“And if she isn’t, she’s Jess and Tommy’s problem.”

“Putting it that way makes me sound like an asshole, but yeah.”

“Mr. Dolan,” Detective Rodriguez cut into their conversation as she sidled up the sidewalk. “We need to talk.”

“What I need is a restraining order,” If Adrian had plans to remain in the states, he would seriously consider filing harassment charges. “I have nothing to say to you or anyone else on your task force.”

“Detective Pearce is missing, LaKeisha Grant and James St. Patrick are dead,” Blanca remarked in a brusque and blunt fashion. “I’d say we have an awful lot to talk about.”

“We’re gonna have to agree to disagree there,” Those three things, the murders in particular, were things Adrian did not want to discuss with anyone, let alone the authorities. “You want to talk to someone, give my lawyer a call.”

“His number should be on file by now,” Deran mentioned, setting the box he was carrying in the trailer. “But I think we might have his card somewhere—“

“Dolan, you are coming with me,” She unclipped her handcuffs from her belt. “Or I will arrest you for obstruction of justice.”

“Yeah,” Adrian handed the storage tub off to Deran. “Of course you will.”

* * *

Tommy had a couple of loose ends to tie up before he could leave New York in his rearview; the least of all being hauling his mom’s shit to storage. It was all supposed to be ready for transport by the time he got there, but when he pulled up to the curb, Deran was still moving boxes from the house to the trailer, and Adrian was nowhere to be found from what Tommy could see from the confines of his car. To further keep him from what should have been a simple task was his cellphone ringing with a call from an unknown number.

“What?”

“_I got that name for you.”_

“Grim?” Tommy had almost forgotten about the prepay phone that had been smuggled to B.G. in the pen. “What name?”

“_The person who told the cops about you and Poncho. It was Spanky.”_

“Spanky?” He’d suspected Spank of being the one, he just needed the confirmation to act on those suspicions. “How you know that? He tell you?”

“_He talked to the feds and the next morning he was released. There’s no way he made bail, he don’t have the money for that.”_

“Motherfucker’s shady as hell,” To think Tommy had trusted that rat bitch. “You said he’s out?”

“_Was processed out this morning.”_

“All right,” Tommy would track that motherfucker down and take care of him ASA-fucking-P. “Good lookin’ out B.G.”

“_Oh, and that Dre thing…took care of it last night.”_

“Yeah?” Tommy didn’t want to get his hopes up, Dre had managed to slither out of every other goddamn attempt made to punch his fucking ticket. “You sure?”

“_Cremated him myself.”_

“My man,” That was the best news Tommy had heard in weeks. “I made a money drop to our friends this morning, so you got someone watching your back in there now. They should be making contact with you real soon if they haven’t already.”

“_Appreciate that, boss.”_

“I take care of my people,” It was the least Tommy could do for all the loyalty Grim had shown him over the years. “Hey, I’m heading out west for awhile. You get out, look me up out there, all right? There’s always a place for you in my organization.”

“_Yeah, you got it, man. Thanks.”_

“Keep your head up in there, Grim.”

Tommy said his goodbyes and hung up the phone, tossing it onto the passenger seat. He pulled himself up and out of the car, crossing the lawn to join Deran by the trailer and moving truck.

“What’s up, man?” Tommy asked, leaning against the trailer. “Where is everyone?”

“Jess took your mom to that will reading thing. Cops picked up Adrian for questioning,” Deran grumbled, shoving boxes into the back of the truck. “And you were supposed be here like an hour ago.”

“Yeah, I know,” Nostalgia had sidetracked him at the loft. “What do the cops want with Adrian?”

“They want info on LaKeisha and Jamie’s murders and Pearce’s disappearance,” Deran grunted, narrowing his eyes. “You got any idea what happened to Pearce?”

“You got any idea what happened to Adrian’s friend Dave?”

“Tragic accident, from what I heard,” Deran shrugged, feigning ignorance. “You gonna help me load up the rest of this shit or you just gonna stand there?”

“If we want to get it done, I guess I gotta pitch in,” It wasn’t a one-man job, after all. “We don’t got a lot of time and we got a stop to make before we head to the storage place.”

“What stop?”

“I got a rat that needs exterminating.”

* * *

Jess had learned to expect the unexpected where her brother Jamie was concerned, and she doubted the reading of his will would be the exception to that rule.

“Are we early?” Jess inquired, observing the many empty chairs around the conference table. “Late?”

“Mr. St. Patrick requested that, in the event of his death, his will be read to parties separately,” Jamie’s attorney, Daniel Warren, revealed as he neatly arranged documents in front of him. “It is my understanding that you, Jess Dolan, and you, Katherine Egan, also represent Thomas Egan and Adrian Dolan. Is that correct?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Kate drummed her fingers impatiently over the table. “Don’t mean to be rude or anything, but we’ve got a lot to do today, if we could move this along…”

“Of course, Ms. Egan, we’ll skip the formalities and get right to it,” The attorney said with a tight frown as he began reading from the documents. “Mr. St. Patrick was grateful the care and nurturing you showed to him as a child, Ms. Egan. You took him in and raised him as your own. He felt he would never be able to repay your kindness, but he wanted to know you would always be taken care of. What that means, Ms. Egan, is that he left you a generous sum of money in an offshore bank account.”

“He left me money?” Kate lit up like a Christmas tree. “He was always such a good boy.”

“To you, Ms. Dolan, he left his daughter Raina’s legacy,” Warren slid a large manila envelope across the table. “The Queens Childs Project has been left under the supervision of Mr. St. Patrick’s uncle Gabriel; however, it was his hope that you would oversee a branch in Oceanside. In this packet, Mr. St. Patrick has provided a project model, locations he’s researched, as well as account information for the funding he’s set aside for the project.”

“Oh, uh, okay,” It was a tall order, Raina’s legacy was a hell of a responsibility, but Jess would do her best to honor it. “Thank you.”

“To Adrian Dolan, Mr. St. Patrick recently purchased a 75ft motor yacht that he hoped would be beneficial to a voyage he believed Mr. Dolan would be taking. And lastly, to Thomas Egan, Mr. St. Patrick wished to return his completely rebuilt 1969 Ford Mustang,” The attorney passed two more large envelopes across the table. “Keys, titles, and locations of where Mr. Egan and Mr. Dolan can pick up their vehicles.”

“A yacht and a ’69 Mustang,” Kate chuckled, as if the gifts amused her somehow. “I guess Tasha was right about those hidden accounts.”

“Mr. Warren, I know you probably can’t tell me,” Jess was sure there was some kind of privacy clause in place. “But the kids, Tariq and Yasmine…”

“They’ll be well taken care of,” Warren assured her. “Mr. St. Patrick’s children were his most pressing concern.”

“Not that ‘Riq deserves it,” Kate bristled, mood souring significantly. “What kind of son—“

“Yours,” Jess prevented her mother from incriminating the teenager by reminding her that Tommy too had committed patricide. “Now is not the time or place, Mom.”

“Fine. Fine.”

* * *

As far as interrogation rooms went, the one in the federal prosecutor’s office was pretty nice compared to the cement boxes where run of the mill police departments often left suspects to sweat it out.

“Death is the inevitable end for us all. The people who get close to your family meet that end in a particularly violent fashion,” Blanca methodically covered the tabletop with graphic crime scene photos. “In the last six years alone that includes Shawn Stark, Julio Romano, Raina St. Patrick, Kanan Stark, Tony Teresi, Angela Valdes, Joe Proctor, LaKeisha Grant, Dave Trager, Jason Micic, James St. Patrick, and Dre Coleman—and those are only the ones whose bodies have been found. If we add the missing and presumed dead, there’s also Holly Weaver and Detective Pearce.”

“Detective Pearce isn’t close to my family, he’s obsessed with Deran’s,” If they were going to lump in people associated with the Codys or every law enforcement officer who disappeared while investigating them, that list was going to get a hell of a lot longer. “Raina, Julio, LaKeisha, Kanan, Teresi, and Jason were all killed by your people. You don’t get to invoke them in this.”

“Raina St. Patrick was murdered by Raymond Jones, a dirty patrol officer, and Kanan Stark was killed after initiating a shootout with police,” Blanca ceded to those two points, but only those two. “Julio Romano, LaKeisha Grant, Jason Micic, and Tony Teresi however…”

“You guys picked up Dre Coleman, _**repeatedly**_, on charges that should have put him away for decades, but you kept releasing him so he could keep snitching for you. He was closer to being one of you than he ever was to the gangster he wanted to be,” Dre’s partnership with the prosecutor’s office might have been a grudging one at times, but Adrian wasn’t about to let him off the hook for all the damage he’d caused. “Dre had Julio killed so he could take his place in the organization. If he hadn’t done that, he wouldn’t have been a speck on Alicia Jimenez’s radar, and he would have been useless to you.”

“Dre wasn’t a speck on our radar until he got involved with Alicia Jimenez,” Blanca argued, taking no responsibility for the blood Dre had spilled to get where he needed to be so she and her colleagues could use him. “Julio Romano, your former husband, he knew the risks of the life he chose to lead.”

“I guess Jason Micic did too when Dre killed him,” Adrian was aware that Jason’s death was on Ghost’s head, but he’d play along with the official story to keep things on track. “And that was well after you and Saxe played catch-and-release for the umpteenth time and made him your bitch.”

“Between you and me, I don’t buy Coleman as Micic’s doer, but I can’t deny the evidence or the eye witness testimony,” Blanca shrugged. “As for LaKeisha Grant and Tony Teresi, LaKeisha chose to align herself with a criminal and Tony was a lifelong mobster, anything that happened to them was a direct result of those choices.”

“Tony was a snitch for this office. Saxe leaked his name the same way you did to LaKeisha and Oceanside PD did with me,” Difference was, Tony actually had snitched, while Adrian and LaKeisha had held firm in their resolve, refusing to say a word about Tommy and Ghost or the Codys. “You hoped the threat of being killed for being a rat would send them scurrying to you for safety, would finally convince them to give up the information you wanted. Playing that card hasn’t worked out well for you or Saxe, has it? Teresi’s crew got to him before he could make another deal—“

“Your brother got to him first.”

“Tommy wouldn’t kill his own father, especially when they were just getting to know each other,” Except that he had, with a helping hand from Ghost manipulating the situation. “And LaKeisha… Whoever you gave her name to, that’s who murdered her.”

“I didn’t give her name to anyone,” Blanca claimed, sticking to her story to keep herself out of trouble. “If you’re finally ready to admit who you saw that night, I’m ready to listen.”

“I don’t know who pulled the trigger, but I know who’s responsible,” The triggerman – woman – was only one piece of the puzzle. “You.”

“I didn’t put the bullet in LaKeisha Grant’s skull or choke the life out of Jason Micic. Neither Cooper Saxe or myself are responsible for any crimes Andre Coleman may have committed, including beating Julio Romano to death and slicing off a block of skin from his throat,” Blanca brought attention to each individual murder, pushing the gruesome photos of their corpses closer to Adrian. “Detective Pearce wouldn’t have been responsible for anything the Codys chose to do to you. Do you blame him for what the Codys did to Dave Trager? Trager was Pearce’s star witness against the Codys, after all.”

“Everything I’ve heard about Dave’s death suggests it was an accident,” Adrian wasn’t stupid, he knew Pope had finished what he started with Dave two years ago, it was something he would never forgive the other man for, but he wasn’t about to rat him out to Blanca either. “I don’t know if I’d blame Pearce. I don’t think he’s quite as far gone as you and Saxe. I don’t even think he’s the one who gave me up to Smurf. He’s a self-righteous prick who grasps at straws and chases leads he knows won’t pan out, but so far he’s only straddled moral and ethical lines, hasn’t crossed them yet.”

“With a straight face, you continue to refer to him in the present tense,” Blanca acknowledged with a haughty cluck of her tongue. “When you and I both know he’s dead.”

“I don’t know anything,” He had a pretty good idea about Pearce’s fate, but that’s all it was, an idea. “I had no reason to wish Pearce harm. He had nothing on me or my family.”

“Except Dave Trager’s statement about how you threatened him into keeping his mouth shut about Andrew Cody trying to murder him two years ago.”

“A statement made two years after the fact without evidence to back it up,” Adrian had been more worried about Dave’s safety than anything he had actually said to the police. “And since Pearce started unofficially working with your task force, he tainted any other case he touched. Could you imagine if the press or Pearce’s superiors found out how many crimes you’ve committed trying to solve the murder of a _**dirty**_ AUSA?”

“I didn’t bring you here to talk about Angela Valdes,” Blanca glowered, irritation growing with every passing second. “I want to know which member of your family is responsible for the brutality laid out on this table.”

“And you think I can tell you?”

“I don’t think there’s a single thing that goes down in your family that you don’t know about. And these victims,” She slammed a palm down on the photos. “More than a few of these victims are members of your family, unless you’re some sort of psychopath, that should matter to you.”

“It does.”

“But you won’t get justice for them. Can you even grasp the horror of what happened to them? Julio Romano didn’t die from the beating, did you know that?” Blanca took more crime scene photos from a file, ones of Julio, each more grotesque than the last. “It was the neck wound. It wasn’t instantaneous, it took minutes for him to bleed out. As you can see from the blood trail on the ground, he tried to crawl away. He used every breath he had left to get away from his attackers.”

“I know,” Adrian swallowed around the lump in his throat, nausea settling in his stomach. “I read the autopsy report.”

“Raina St. Patrick,” Blanca added pictures of his niece’s body beside Julio’s. “She died alone in the snow outside her school dance. Do you wonder if she tried to call out for help, only to be drowned out by the music and laughter of her classmates having the time of their lives?”

“Raina never had the chance to call for help,” He couldn’t be sure if the quick manner of her death was a blessing or not. “I know what you’re trying to do.”

“James St. Patrick,” Photos taken at Truth of his brother’s body were added to the growing pile. “He was shot on the second floor balcony and fell backward to the floor below. Like Julio, he didn’t die instantly, but like his daughter, he died _**alone**_.”

“We all die alone, Detective,” The myth that you could pass peacefully in your sleep surrounded by loved ones was nothing more than that, a myth. “I know what you’re doing with all this. You’re trying to bait me. You think if you show me pictures of the dead that I’ll get so worked up, so angry that I’ll blurt out something incriminating.”

“You are angry.”

“I am angry, but I’m not like Tommy or Deran. I’m not reactive. You can’t prey on my rage,” Adrian had spent his life surrounded by hair-trigger tempers; he couldn’t afford to have one himself. “You’re playing this game with me instead of Tommy or Tasha or Jess, because you, like Pearce, believe I’m the weak link in the chain.”

“Pearce was right in the sense that you are_** Deran’s **_weak link, you earned that just by sharing his bed,” Blanca couldn’t sound anymore condescending if she tried. “Mixing romance with this kind of life, buying into that ride-or-die fantasy, it always ends with one partner turning on the other.”

“In those situations, it’s always the partner in the life that turns on the other,” People like Deran, Tommy and Jamie, the ones that demanded 100% loyalty from their romantic partners were almost always the ones who fell drastically short of offering loyalty in return. “Self-preservation is all they know. If you or Pearce or any other cop had anything real to charge them with, they would trip all over themselves to sell their crew out – just like Dre did—to save their own asses.”

“Your brother was nearly convicted of murdering a federal informant, Nomar—“

“Nomar was raping Ruiz’s teenage daughter,” Not a jury in the world would have convicted Tommy once that shit came to light. “You really want to bring him into this?”

“From what I understand, that was a consensual relationship.”

“She was fourteen, he was at least thirty,” It wasn’t a barely legal situation, it was a grown man and a teenage girl who wasn’t old enough to consent. “I guess Angela Valdes didn’t see a problem with it either when she put that creep on payroll, allowed him to keep victimizing Ruiz’s daughter so he could gather information on Ruiz.”

“Your brother was nearly convicted of murdering a federal informant a few years ago,” Blanca repeated, determined to make her point, whatever it may be. “He didn’t roll on his crew.”

“He didn’t have to roll on anyone when he knew Angela Valdes falsified evidence in his trial,” She had used and manipulated an underage girl, the same one her rapist of an informant had been assaulting, to complete the composite sketch of Tommy that led to his arrest. “She was cited by the ethics committee for that. She should have been disbarred.”

“James St. Patrick was convicted of killing a federal agent, Gregory Knox,” Blanca thought it necessary to bring up a conviction that was subsequently overturned a few weeks after Jamie was locked up. “He didn’t turn snitch.”

“Jamie was innocent. Knox was killed by a federal prosecutor who turned out to be a mole for a drug cartel. Jamie didn’t have to rat, he knew the truth would come out eventually, just like Tommy did when he was on trial,” Tommy and Ghost weren’t going to betray everything they knew over bullshit charges. “Your people, this office, yeah, it’s more corrupt than any crook I’ve ever met, Smurf Cody included. The worst part is, for you anyway, is that all that corruption is well documented, which is why no one on your task force is every going to secure a conviction or convince anyone to give you anything real.”

* * *

As a rule, Deran didn’t allow himself to be left alone with Tommy—experience taught him bad shit happened when he was isolated with Adrian’s brother. For whatever reason he hadn’t been as nervous about being trapped in a vehicle with him until he was on the road with him.

“This is a U-Haul not your muscle car, man,” Deran braced himself with a hand on the dashboard as Tommy swerved through traffic at high speeds. “It doesn’t maneuver the same way.”

“Anyone ever tell you you’re a pussy?”

“Your brother,” Adrian was the only person Deran would ever let get away with that kind of insult. “Seriously, man, I’m gonna get car sick or you’re going to kill us both if you keep driving like a fucking lunatic.”

“Relax. I see the motherfucker we’re looking for,” Tommy suddenly veered to the left, slamming on the brakes at the sidewalk. “Rat bitch.”

“Who?” Deran peered out the windshield to see who or what Tommy was referring to. “Isn’t that one of your guys?”

“Yeah, that’s the bitch,” Tommy rolled down the window to shout at the man in question. “Yo, Spanky! Fancy meeting you here.”

“H-Hey,” Spanky’s footfalls came to a stop beside the truck. “Who told you I was out?”

“Who do you think?” Tommy cocked his head to the side. “Grim’s still inside, you ain’t.”

“Look, Tommy, I’ma be straight up with you,” Spanky started with a put-upon sigh. “I thought you flipped on us. You was the only one from the crew who didn’t get wrapped up.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” Deran snorted. “He called the cops on himself so they would raid his warehouse, confiscate his inventory, and arrest rats like you who would roll on him in a heartbeat.”

“Shit, I’m a third striker, bro. They was throwing life at me. I used to say fuck the police, but now I’m saying fuck jail,” Spanky muttered derisively. “But you know I ain’t going to get on no stand to testify.”

“I figured as much, Spank,” Tommy slid his hand into his inside jacket pocket. “Just wanted to make sure before I moved on.”

“Yeah?” Spanky’s interest piqued. “Where you going?”

“You really want to know?”

“Come on, now,” A wide grin spread over Spanky’s face. “You know you gotta tell me.”

“All right. I’ll tell you, but then I gotta kill you,” Tommy joked, cocking a gun beneath the cover of his jacket. “California.”

Tommy whipped the pistol out and fired a single shot through the left lens of Spanky’s glasses, lodging a bullet into his eye socket. Spanky dropped like a sack of potatoes to the ground, blood pouring onto the sidewalk.

“Was it fucking necessary to do that with me here?” Deran snapped, anxiety ratcheting up as he went on high alert, keeping his ears open for sirens, signs of a police presence. “In the middle of the goddamn… If you were planning to kill someone, you could’ve left me at the house!”

“I wasn’t gonna make multiple trips,” Tommy huffed, steering the truck back onto the street. “We still gotta go drop this shit off at storage before we meet up with everyone else.”

“You sure that’s it?” Deran didn’t want to be caught off guard by another unscheduled stop. “We’re not gonna go harass the little girl for a copy of that recording or anything?”

“Nah. There’s no telling how many copies she and her auntie made, if any, and there’s no way in hell they’d just hand them over to me,” Tommy reasoned, setting his gun on the center console. “You got me the original, and the original’s all that matters. A lawyer could claim any copies were altered or some shit.”

“Right,” Deran could get behind that logic if it meant they could finally get what they were supposed to be doing done. “What about your beef with the family? You don’t think that’s gonna follow you to Los Angeles?”

“I wouldn’t be moving so close to my sister if I thought they would,” Tommy wouldn’t put Jess or Charlie in danger. “That little girl, though, she knows I killed her old man. I’ll understand if she wants to come see me about it someday.”

* * *

In all the years Craig and Renn had known each other, Pope couldn’t recall a single instance where he and Renn had shared two words let alone a full conversation. Even in the time Pope had been staying at Craig’s place, they hadn’t done more than trade nods as they passed baby Nick back and forth. For the most part is had been a comfortable silence that sat between them, or so Pope had thought.

It wasn’t until they found themselves alone together, cleaning up Deran and Adrian’s house that Pope noticed how tense things were without Craig or Nick to fill the silence. It became so unbearable that Pope found himself trying to make conversation.

“Where’s Nick?” Pope asked to break the silence. “Your mom watching him?”

“God no,” Renn scowled as she scrubbed at the kitchen counters. “A friend’s babysitting.”

“A friend?” Pope shouldn’t judge when he knew Renn and Craig were both new to the parenting thing, but he couldn’t help but think that Nick was too young to be left with anyone outside the family. “You could have brought him with you.”

“I don’t think the smell of all these chemicals would be good for him,” Renn said, gesturing to the bottles of cleaning solution they were using to sanitize the house. “Don’t worry. He’s with Leilani and Tao, not one of my junkie friends.”

“Tao and Leilani are good,” The couple had been friends with Deran and Adrian since high school, even had children of their own, but they weren’t family. “There are people closer to home that can watch the baby if you and Craig need a break or have something to do.”

“No offense or anything, but I’m trying to do right by my kid, not repeat my mother’s mistakes,” Renn remarked tersely. “If I have to leave him with someone, it has to be someone I trust, and that’s not your family.”

“We’re Nick’s family,” That baby was Craig’s son, Pope’s nephew; there’s nothing they wouldn’t do to protect him. “We can take care of him.”

“I don’t doubt that, but I already have to worry enough about Nick picking up mine and Craig’s bad habits one day,” Renn sighed, wiping sweat from her brow. “I don’t need to worry about him spending so much time with you guys that he learns to think or act like you do.”

“What?”

“Nick’s your blood, that gives him a measure of safety in the family,” Renn acknowledged. “But anyone he chooses to love, they’ll be outsiders like me and Adrian and Cath. The people you let close, we are the first ones you will turn on when shit hits the fan.”

“No,” It was an accusation Pope and his brothers had faced numerous times in the last several weeks, one he could fully deny without lying out of his ass. “I know that’s how it looks, but it’s not the full story.”

“Adrian’s lucky to be alive and Cath is dead, just because the cops talked to them about you,” Renn countered, tossing the rag into the sink. “You guys are all too happy to spill your secrets to the person in your bed then execute them for knowing ‘em once the cops get involved.”

“No one is going to hurt you, Renn,” His reassurance wouldn’t mean much to her, he knew that, but it would mean less if he didn’t say it at all. “Craig told me Pearce has brought you in a couple times over the years to ask questions about us.”

“I kept my mouth shut, just like Adrian and Cath did. The only reason you didn’t put a hit out on me or make me disappear is because you didn’t know about it until recently,” Renn retorted, voice full of contempt. “I don’t want Nick to be like that. When the cops start sniffing around, I don’t want his first instinct to be to murder the person he loves.”

“That was Smurf’s way, not ours.”

“It’s ingrained inside of you because of Smurf,” Renn asserted, allowing blame to be placed on the matriarch, but refusing to believe the buck stopped with her. “It doesn’t just go away because she’s dead. And until…until I can be sure Nick isn’t going to pick up on it, I’m not comfortable with him spending the majority of his time away from home with you guys.”

“People you associate with aren’t great role models either.”

“That’s why I’m not letting him near people I usually associate with. I want him to learn from good people, responsible people like Tao and Leilani,” Renn divulged how she was changing her social circle to benefit her son. “And Adrian put me and his sister in touch. Jess said if I ever needed a babysitter or safe place for Nick to go, I can call her.”

“She’s practically family,” If his nephew had to be with someone who wasn’t blood, he supposed Jess was the right choice. “Look, I don’t know if it makes a difference in how you feel about leaving Nick with us, but Craig and I are talking about changing things. We don’t need to pull jobs, we have other sources of income, The Drop and the buildings Smurf gave us. We want to start pulling away from all the bullshit.”

“You think J will let you?”

“He doesn’t get a choice,” They were done letting their lives be controlled by money hungry manipulators on power trips. “He’s only been doing this two years, he doesn’t understand… If he wants to keep pulling jobs, he can put together his own crew. He’s not using us the way Smurf did.”

“Look, I’m never gonna be that person who’s going to nag Craig about going legit; what you guys do doesn’t bother me,” Renn commented, pursing her lips. “I just don’t want Nick to be involved in it or what I do. If going legit is what you guys want, more power to you.”

“We need to do it,” He wasn’t sure if it’s what he wanted, it was all he ever knew, he wasn’t sure what else he would do. “If we keep going the way we have, you’re going to be hosting paddle outs for what’s left of us soon.”

* * *

If they were going to gather the family to say goodbye before they went their separate ways, Adrian expected it to be somewhere special to them, where they had some kind of history. The marina wasn’t a place they had spent any real time, but it was where Adrian was told to meet the rest of his family once Blanca had released him. To his credit, Tommy appeared equally confused by the choice of venues when he arrived with Deran in tow.

“Yo, scram,” Tommy shoved at Deran’s good shoulder, pushing him toward the end of the dock where the rest of their party was waiting for them. “Gotta talk to my brother.”

“Stop pushing me,” Deran swatted at Tommy’s hand. “I’m going.”

“He’s in pain,” Adrian noted the limp in Deran’s gait as he walked away. “Did you make him haul Mom’s shit to storage himself? He’s still recovering, you know.”

“I moved everything into the storage unit while he napped in the truck,” Tommy claimed with a snarky roll of his eyes. “I’ m not a complete asshole. You’re the one who left him at the house to pack Mom’s stuff by himself.”

“You and Jess are the ones who volunteered me and Deran for the job even though we’re injured,” Completely ignoring the doctor’s orders to take it easy while their bodies healed. “And I didn’t choose to leave Deran at Mom’s house alone. Blanca threatened to arrest me if I didn’t go with her.”

“We ain’t gonna have to worry about Blanca much longer, all right? She’s done,” Tommy announced with a smug smirk. “Pretty soon, the only thing she’s gonna be asking for is a lawyer.”

“Uh-huh,” Adrian knew he shouldn’t ask, ignorance is bliss and all that, but he just couldn’t help himself. “Why is that?”

“Let’s just say that because of lax security on Detective Pearce’s laptop, the US Attorney’s office may have been led to believe that he had more of a conscience than we originally thought,” Tommy explained, amusement and deviousness dancing in his eyes. “What, you thought I just capped him and buried him in an unmarked grave? No, little brother, I took full advantage of his cellphone, hotel keycard and everything in his hotel room. Then I took advantage of the shitty security at Blanca’s place too.”

“Okay,” That was as much as Adrian needed to know. “I hope you were smart about it, didn’t get caught on cameras or anything.”

“Who the fuck you think you’re talking to?” Tommy scoffed, shaking his head. “Oh, shit I meant to tell you, Grim hit me up, let me know Dre ain’t gonna be a problem no more either. Grim lit his ass up, literally.”

“Dre’s dead.” Adrian felt a wave of relief wash over him. “Grim okay?”

“He’s fine. And before you ask, I got him protection inside,” Tommy assured him that B.G. would be safe throughout his incarceration. “Now, back to business at hand. You know why Jess wanted us all to meet here?”

“Nope,” He was in the dark, just like everyone else. “Guess we better find out.”

“Yep,” Tommy knocked their shoulders together as they started off down the dock. “Hey, one of your friends in SoCal ain’t a real estate agent or something, are they? I don’t want to crowd into Jess’s place, but I don’t want to live out of a motel till I can find a place of my own either.”

“Deran and his brothers own a few apartment buildings, but they probably wouldn’t be a good fit,” Adrian didn’t want to call them slumlords, but he’d seen the state of some of those buildings, a prison cell would be more hospitable. “Why don’t you stay at the house? Pope’s going to be living there while Deran and me are away, I don’t think he’d mind you crashing for awhile.”

“Potsy? Oh, he’s gonna love having me around,” Tommy grinned like the Cheshire cat. “Oh, yeah, I think it’s going to take me awhile to find a place. We’re talking months.”

“You two good?” Jess asked as they joined the rest of the group. “We need to make this quick, Mom and I have to get to the airport.”

“You’re the one who brought us all the way out here,” Craig pointed out. “We could’ve done all this goodbye stuff at the house or somewhere closer to the airport.”

“True, but then we wouldn’t have been able to see how luxurious Adrian’s new boat is,” Jess motioned to the nice-sized yacht docked feet from where they were standing. “Jamie left it for you in his will.”

“T-This is ours?” Deran wasted no time climbing aboard the vessel. “This is fucking beautiful.”

“He left it to _**Adrian**_,” Jess said as if the clarification would mean a damn thing to Deran. “Jamie thought you could use it on your trip.”

“Goddamn,” Tommy whistled, gawking at the boat. “Motherfucker whined to Jason about not having money to pay the tax when the whole time he had a stash to pay for something like this?”

“That’s not all he could afford,” Jess tossed a set of keys at her older brother. “He had your mustang rebuilt, been storing it in a warehouse downtown.”

“The mustang was only totaled, what, a month ago, and Adrian only decided to make this trip a few weeks ago. Jamie must have put all this together in the days before…,” Kate trailed off, grief clouding her features. “Like he knew something was going to happen.”

“He probably wasn’t expecting something like that to happen,” Tommy muttered, face twisted in a scowl. “I know he and ‘Riq was having problems, but I never expected shit to go down like that.”

“I don’t think any of us did,” Adrian acknowledged sullenly. “I think ‘Riq panicked after Jamie told him he was going to turn him in for Ray Ray’s murder. I mean, the ‘Riq’s not stupid, he knows what would happen to a kid like him in prison. I think he got scared and he reacted.”

“Jesus Christ. Send that kid to prison, he’d be dead in a week,” Tommy remarked, nostrils flaring. “Okay. I can sort of understand why ‘Riq did what he did now.”

“Totally legitimate reason to kill your old man,” Craig added his unsolicited two cents. “Smurf would’ve loved this kid.”

“That’s terrifying,” Adrian frowned, turning his attention to the man on the boat. “Deran, will you get off that thing?”

“No. No, that’s not happening. I’m never leaving,” Deran settled in for the long haul, going as far as to plop his ass down on the nearest surface. “And you know what? I take back every bad thing I’ve ever said about your family.”

“One of them leaves us a brand new toy and all is forgiven?” Adrian chuckled, climbing up onto the boat himself. “For the record, I stand by everything I’ve ever said about your family.”

“Hey, my family’s letting you have me,” Deran waved a hand toward Craig. “That’s a pretty fair trade. I mean, I can be luxurious too.”

“And you’re both expensive and high maintenance,” Maybe not in the traditional sense, but anyone who dropped over a million dollars on a house was nowhere near the realm of low maintenance or cheap, in Adrian’s opinion. “Just like this nice boat my brother left us.”

“It’s a yacht,” Deran corrected. “Calling it a boat is degrading.”

“I didn’t know you were a boat guy, Deran,” Jess mentioned, stifling a laugh behind her hand. “Can’t say I’m surprised you’d be drawn to a yacht, though.”

“Yacht, boat, doesn’t matter,” Adrian wasn’t concerned with proper terminology. “We can’t keep it, Deran.”

“What? Why not?”

“Neither of us has ever captained a boat before,” They had piloted speedboats on occasion, but he imagined a yacht required a slightly different skill set.

“First time for everything,” Deran said with a shrug. “We’re learning-by-doing guys, we’ll figure it out.”

“Lost at sea, that’s how it’s going to happen,” Tommy concluded, nodding his head. “Eh, there are worse ways to die.”

“Trapped together somewhere in the middle of the ocean, hundreds of miles from civilization,” Craig cackled. “I don’t know, man, my money’s on someone getting tossed off a boat during a fight.”

“We’re both good swimmers,” Deran argued. “We won’t drown.”

“If I whacked you over the head before I tossed you overboard, it’s not going to matter how strong of a swimmer you are,” Adrian deadpanned. “Not that I’ve thought about it.”

“You have thought about it, and not for the first time,” Deran narrowed his eyes. “I’ve never once thought about how I would kill you.”

“You’d strangle me to death,” Adrian hadn’t failed to notice Deran’s penchant for wrapping his hands around his throat. “Not that I’ve thought about that either.”

“To keep the peace, I’m not going to mention how he’s nearly killed you once already,” Jess cut into their banter. “But, um, Mom and I do have to go, so we need to wrap his up.”

“Okay. Ground rules time,” Tommy rapped his fist against the side of the yacht. “Adrian, you check in at least once a week.”

“By phone or video chat,” Jess added. “If we don’t hear your voice in that time frame, we’ll assume something happened and call the coast guard.”

“You won’t have to call the coast guard,” The coast guard would only be useful if they were making the journey by sea, which Adrian had no intention of doing. “We’re not taking the boat.”

“He’s right; we’re not taking a boat. We’re taking the yacht,” Deran grinned. “Once a week, call or video chat. We got it.”

“You make sure every inch of this boat is in working order before you go anywhere,” Jess instructed, urging them to proceed with caution as she scrutinized the vessel. “You need a life raft or a dinghy or whatever. You need to buy a satellite phone, food and water, extra fuel, a flare gun—“

“A rifle and a handgun,” Craig interjected with his own suggestions. “In case pirates try to hijack you or something.”

“Keep your personal shit, I.D.s, passports, and cash locked up but easily accessible to you,” Tommy advised them. “If you gotta bailout quick, you don’t want to leave that shit behind, but you don’t want anyone else to get it either.”

“We’re perfectly capable of being responsible adults, thanks,” Adrian couldn’t think of any examples of their responsibility off the top of his head, but if he could he’d be listing them to prove it. “If we’re setting rules, Deran and I have some of our own.”

“Don’t burn down my bar,” Deran said sternly, leveling his brother a sharp look if warning. “And don’t let Pope’s girlfriend turn my house into a shooting gallery. Fuck. Don’t let her in the house at all.”

“Send me a pic of this bitch, I’ll make sure she don’t get in,” Tommy volunteered to handle Angela, should she continue to be a nuisance. “Since I’m gonna be staying there too.”

“You’re what?” Craig’s brows shot up. “Whose bright idea was that?”

“Mine,” Adrian was either going to regret that decision or applaud himself for it later. “Fifty/fifty chance they become friends or kill each other.”

“Funny, I was going to say the same thing about Ma and Jess,” Tommy joked, earning twin slaps to the back of his head from the women in question. “Ow.”

“Mom and Jess will be fine,” So long as the living arrangement was temporary. “You just need to keep Mom and Nico away from each other.”

“You managed to avoid Dad for twelve, thirteen years, while still doing the books at his shop,” Jess pointed out. “Keeping him and Mom apart shouldn’t be that difficult.”

“Hey, I’ll decide who I can and can’t see,” Kate snapped, unwilling to allow her children to control her life. “What makes you think I’d want to see that asshole anyway? Nothing good has ever come from being with that sack of shit.”

“She says while standing beside the two children that came out of her relationship with that sack of shit,” Jess gestured between herself and Adrian. “What are we, chopped liver?”

“I said nothing _**good**_ came out of it,” Kate commented wryly. “You guys are just okay.”

“Thanks, Ma.”

“And that concludes the sentimental portion of our big goodbye.”

* * *

After finally giving into temptation and firing Saxe, Warner thought he had brought an end to the corruption marring his office. It was a lengthy phone call from the California State Police followed by several emails, and a subsequent investigation that made him realize the task force he’d been appointed to had been rotten all the way through. Not only did he have a dirty victim, and a prosecutor who played fast and loose with the law, but as it turned out, he also a detective who may have hit lows even Saxe hadn’t stooped to.

“Sir, pulling me out now is a mistake,” Blanca protested being removed from the interrogation she had been conducting. “Tasha St. Patrick is almost ready to crack.”

“I was watching you question her, she is nowhere near ready to confess or implicate anyone in her former husband’s murder,” From what Warner had observed, Tasha’s teenage son, Tariq, was as tightlipped about his father’s death as his mother. “You have bigger things to worry about than James St. Patrick’s murder.”

“Like what?” Blanca became suspicious as she was led into an interrogation room of her own. “What is this?”

“Have a seat.”

“I want to know what this is about,” Blanca glared as she sat in the chair usually designated for perps. “What did Saxe do now?”

“No. No, this isn’t about Cooper Saxe,” Although charges had been filed against that particular thorn in Warner’s side, he had nothing to do with the ones ready to be filed against Blanca Rodriguez. “I received an interesting phone call from Detective Pearce’s Chief of Police.”

“Do they have a new lead on his disappearance?”

“They do, in fact. As you know, they requested his laptop and any other belongings that could contain information on open cases he had in his district,” Warner had allowed the items to be sent back to California with the understanding that the crime lab would share any information that could prove pertinent to their investigation. “On his laptop, they found a draft of a letter he had composed, addressed to his own superiors as well as yours, detailing your activities.”

“My activities?” Blanca balked, stopping short of rolling her eyes. “And what would those be?”

“Illegally stopping LaKeisha Grant, forcing her child out of the car, and threatening to kidnap him,” The same thing, Warner recalled, Blanca had chastised Saxe for pulling on Dre. “I spoke with the social worker from DCFS. She confirmed you had her force Cash Grant into a patrol car, and told her she needed to be prepared to remove him from his mother’s custody and keep him from his father.”

“That’s not illegal.”

“Cash Grant wasn ot in immediate danger. There was no abuse or neglect in the home. There was no legal bearing to take that child from his parents. You and the social worker would have had to falsify official paperwork,” A play that would unnecessarily traumatize a child and overwhelm an already overwhelmed and wildly underfunded foster care system. “In his letter, Pearce states that he overheard you and Ms. Grant on the phone the night she was murdered. Ms. Grant had changed her mind, allegedly you responded by threatening her, telling her if she didn’t come in and agree to testify, you’d make her regret it.”

“The key word there being _**allegedly**_.”

“Your phone logs confirm you did receive a call from LaKeisha Grant shortly before she was murdered,” Which by itself wasn’t that suspect until it was put into context with the rest of the evidence. “And our security cameras have you leaving the building early that same night.”

“I left the office early, because I wanted to speak with Tasha St. Patrick before I went home—which I told you I was doing prior to leaving.” Blanca gripped the edge of the table, steadying herself. “You think I killed LaKeisha Grant?”

“Detective Pearce certainly suspected you,” To be fair, the evidence was circumstantial at best. “You insisted on being the one to interview Adrian Dolan and Deran Cody after the shooting and LaKeisha’s murder. Pearce noted in his letter that your behavior throughout the interview suggested you were trying to make a power play of sorts, show them that you were in charge of the investigation and the outcome, so they should choose what they said carefully.”

“I interviewed them the way I would any other ‘victims’ that were lying to impede the investigation,” She snarled, barely able to keep her temper in check. “I did not kill LaKeisha Grant.”

“How about Detective Pearce?” On that case, Warner had enough evidence that implicated Blanca to file an arrest warrant. “His cellphone last pinged at your residence.”

“What?”

“Detective Pearce might have been well on his way to becoming the next Cooper Saxe, but he wasn’t all the way there yet,” Warner believed, despite Pearce’s faults, there was still a good cop inside of him. “I think he confronted you about LaKeisha Grant, threatened to send that letter he was writing.”

“Detective Pearce came to my home one time, with Saxe, the day after he got into town. He didn’t come by any time after that. We only met at the office or in public places,” Blanca claimed, nails digging into the table. “He never confronted me about LaKeisha’s murder. Every conversation we had was amiable and professional.”

“We found Pearce’s cellphone in a dumpster five blocks from your house,” It had been wiped clean of fingerprints, as had every other piece of evidence that had been located, however, Warner had no plans to share that tidbit with his prime suspect. “A homeless man nearby identified someone wearing a Columbia University sweatshirt as the person who tossed the phone. Columbia is your wife’s alma mater, isn’t it?”

“Hers and thousands of other peoples.”

“The perp had their hood up, intentionally blocking their face from view, the witness couldn’t tell if they were male or female,” The best description they could get for the suspect was average height and build, wearing a college sweatshirt. “I spoke to your wife. She doesn’t remember you coming home the night the witness saw the cellphone being thrown in the dumpster.”

“She goes to bed early and sleeps like the dead,” Blanca offered a simple explanation. “I’m home and in bed by midnight most nights.”

“Most nights, and your wife can’t confirm because she sleeps like the dead,” A convenient story, but a pisspoor alibi. “Your personal vehicle is in your and your wife’s names. She was so confident you had nothing to do with Detective Pearce’s disappearance that she allowed us to search that car.”

“I didn’t have anything to do with Pearce’s disappearance.”

“The car had that professionally cleaned look and smell to it, someone had gone over it top-to-bottom with a fine-tooth comb,” That in itself was a red flag to the crime scene techs who had gone over the vehicle. “But no one is perfect, they always miss something. You missed a sliver of fabric with traces of Pearce’s blood, found in the spare tire compartment in the trunk.”

“A sliver of fabric isn’t definitive of anything.”

“On its own, no, but coupled with the cellphone and Pearce’s letter, it is more than enough to launch an investigation,” It would be another black mark on the US Attorney’s office and the NYPD, but necessary nonetheless. “You are suspended from this task force as well as the NYPD until the investigation is complete and a determination is made. You need to surrender your badge, service weapon, and I.D. card for this building. I suggest you contact your union rep and a retain counsel.”

* * *

**ONE WEEK LATER**

* * *

> ‘_An arrest has been made in the brutal murder of New York City entrepreneur and aspiring lieutenant governor James St. Patrick that has gripped national headlines for over a week. Authorities took Tasha St. Patrick into custody early this morning. Ms. St. Patrick is the victim’s former wife and mother of his three children. While the NYPD and United States Attorney’s office have kept a closed lid on the case, sources tell us the former Mrs. St. Patrick is expected to plead guilty to the charges.’_

“A mother’s duty…” Jess mumbled to herself as she muted the news program. “Jesus.”

“You wouldn’t do the same for Charlie?” Carter asked, shifting the sleeping toddler in his arms. “Your mom wouldn’t do the same for you?”

“I would do whatever it took to keep Charlie safe,” If that included taking the fall for murder, she would do it in a heartbeat, but she hoped it would never come to that. “Kate wouldn’t even call me in sick to school let alone go to jail for me.”

“My mom wouldn’t either,” Carter muttered sadly. “Where is your mom? I haven’t seen her this afternoon.”

“I checked her into rehab this morning,” She’d given Kate a couple days to get her bearings in Oceanside before driving her to the facility in San Diego. “I’m sorry about her. I know she can be a bit…much.”

“She’s a trip, but she wasn’t that bad.”

“You caught her on a good day,” Maybe that wasn’t fair, but it was how Jess felt. “We’ll see how she is when she gets out of rehab.”

“She was flying pretty high at dinner, but she still made some good points,” Carter noted. “About us and Charlie, how things are between us.”

“I know,” Her mother had decided her last act before rehab would be to meddle in her love life. “I can’t say I haven’t been thinking about it a lot lately, especially when I was in New York.”

“We probably should have talked it through when you got pregnant or after Charlie was born,” Carter said as he laid their napping daughter in the playpen. “You know, I think part of it is that we’re comfortable with how things are, we’re set in our ways.”

“The other part is we never really had time or energy to put the work into a real relationship,” Their lives had been so busy with their careers and taking care of their respective brothers, and later raising their daughter, that they hadn’t had time to focus on each other. “And I think we’re both kind of scared to ruin the balance we have, we don’t to disrupt Charlie’s life. If we start something and it goes wrong, she loses.”

“If it goes right, she’ll get the real family she deserves,” Carter acknowledged, gazing at their daughter with love and adoration. “We’ve done really good with this co-parenting thing, she has us both 100%, but she’s still living in separate homes, and that’d be okay if we had tried and decided we were better off apart.”

“But we’ve never done that,” They had been stuck in the friends-with-benefits stage since they were teenagers, never crossing the line to a real relationship. “When I was telling Tommy about us, he compared our thing to Kate and Nico’s. They were friends who fucked around too. After me and Adrian were born, everything went downhill with them. Nico moved across the country just to get away from Kate.”

“That’s not going to happen to us,” He assured her. “Charlie’s wellbeing comes before everything, including our feelings for each other. I don’t see a scenario where things get so bad between us that we lose sight of that.”

“It’s so easy to get lost in that ‘what if goes bad’ wormhole that we don’t even consider the possibility that things could go well,” They had always looked at their relationship through a pessimistic lens, perhaps it was time to take the blinders off. “I mean, you and I have always had a really good relationship. We’ve been friends a long time. We have great sex. We have a beautiful daughter together.”

“Is this your long-winded way of asking me on a date?” A shy, playful grin spread over Carter’s lips. “’Cause, you know, our go-to babysitter is in the middle of the Atlantic somewhere and Arnie’s in San Francisco with his girlfriend.”

“Tommy will be here today,” Not that Jess would ask him to babysit on his first night in town, she’d give him a few days to adjust to the time change first. “Maybe next week he can come over and look after Charlie while we go out to dinner or something.”

“Dinner’s good,” Carter nodded. “Maybe a walk on the beach after.”

“Yes,” It might’ve been a bit cliché, but it was a classic for a reason. “And ice cream on the pier.”

“Ice cream on the pier, okay,” Carter chuckled. “But, uh, I think I should meet your brother Tommy before I agree to leave our daughter with him for a few hours.”

“I don’t have a problem with you meeting him,” Jess wasn’t worried about how well the pair would get along. “Shit, you can’t do worse than Deran did.”

“I don’t think anyone can do worse than a Cody at anything.”

“True.”

* * *

Tommy parted ways with Craig at the Oceanside city limits. Craig was to drop Kate’s SUV and trailer full of belongings off at Jess’s house, while Tommy decided to check out his new abode before visiting with his sister.

“So, this is what $1.2mil buys you in California…”

The exterior didn’t look like much, it was nearly identical to every other house in the neighborhood from the architecture to the white paint. The interior had more personality with the stained, exposed wood, and eccentric light fixtures hanging from the ceiling. It was the back deck that really tied the place together and caught his attention, or rather, the man sitting on the deck with an ugly scowl on his face did.

“You don’t look happy to see me,” Tommy let out a dramatic sigh, leaving his bag on the sofa and joining the other man. “That hurts. I thought we were friends.”

“I thought I’d never have to see you again.” Pope grumbled, staring Tommy down through the tinted lenses of his sunglasses. “What are you doing here?”

“Heard you been having trouble with some survivalist pricks your mommy pissed off,” Craig had been more than happy to fill Tommy in on the specifics of that beef over shared meals throughout their cross-country trip. “Good thing I’m here. Ain’t nobody else gonna save your ass.”

“No.”

“Oh, and Adrian said I could crash at the house until I found a place in LA.,” Tommy couldn’t promise he wouldn’t overstay his welcome. “So it looks like you and me are gonna be roommates.”

“_**No**_.”

“You say that a lot, don’t ya?” Yeah, that really wasn’t going to work for Tommy. “Doesn’t matter. None of this shit is really ‘yes’ or ‘no’ anyway. I’m moving in, and since that’s probably gonna put in your survivalists’ crosshairs, I’ma deal with that too.”

“If you don’t stay here, you won’t be involved,” Pope reasoned, giving Tommy an out they both knew he wasn’t going to take. “There are plenty of nice hotels between here and Los Angeles.”

“I’m digging the view here,” He just spent a week sleeping out of cheap, roadside motels, he wasn’t doing it again. “Don’t worry. I’m not gonna crawl into bed with you. I’m a nice guy. I’ll take the couch.”

“Why do you even want to stay here?”

“Why don’t you want me to stay here?”

“We don’t like each other.”

“I thought we were startin’ to get along in New York,” At the very least, they had reached a cease-fire. “Fuck, man, with our brothers the way they are, we ain’t family yet, but we’re gonna be someday.”

“No.”

“Again with the no.” It was becoming a bit repetitive. “We’re all stuck together as long as our brothers are together. We’re going to be one big dysfunction family, we might as well start acting like it.”

“No, Deran and Adrian are stuck together on a boat somewhere,” Pope muttered. “That doesn’t mean we have to be stuck together in this house.”

“Nah, we don’t have to be,” Tommy wasn’t being forced to bunk with the eldest Cody. “But now that I know how uptight you are about it, I really want to.”

“Are you clean?”

“I told you I wouldn’t climb into bed with you.”

“No, not like that.” Pope clenched his eyes shut and took a deep breath, tamping down his growing irritation. “Do you pick up after yourself? I don’t like messes.”

“I keep a clean house,” He learned to do that himself when he moved into the loft, it’s not like he could hire a cleaning person with all the paraphernalia he had stashed around the place. “I’m not anal-retentive about it or anything.”

“You want to stay here, you will be.”

“Fine,” He could make a few concessions, so long as the other man did too. “By the way, Deran made it clear to me and Craig that he doesn’t want your junkie girlfriend hanging around here.”

“Fine,” Pope agreed, if only because it was Deran’s request. “I’ll keep her out of the house, but you can’t bring anyone here either.”

“Okay,” He had just lost his fiancé; he had no intention of jumping back into the dating game any time soon. “So you got a plan to deal with these survivalist assholes or are you just gonna wait for them to attack?”

“You got a better idea?”

“Always man,” Tommy had made a goddamn art out of eliminating the enemy. “Stick with me, kid. You might learn something.”

* * *

Adrian may have kicked up a fuss about the about the yacht at first, but that didn’t stop him from claiming the captains chair as his own from the moment they stepped foot on the vessel. Deran had been regulated to first mate, whatever that meant, not that he minded, he was just happy they were well underway and things were running smoothly. He and Adrian were even getting along better since they’d boarded, arguments tapering off and being replaced by nonsensical bickering.

“The Scout II.”

“No.”

“The Drop II.”

“No,” Adrian pinned him with a withering look. “We are not naming the boat after your car or the bar.”

“Well, we can’t keep the name Jamie gave it,” They’d been locked in the argument since they decided they would take the yacht, and it didn’t look to be ending any time soon. “’Loyalty’? Was he trying to be funny?”

“Something like that,” Adrian hummed. “Maybe it was his way of saying he still had my back.”

“It’s a dumb name for a yacht,” Deran huffed petulantly, crossing his arms over his chest. “We need to change it.”

“Not yet.”

“When then?”

“When it stops bugging the shit out of you,” Adrian smirked, taking a swig from his beer. “Come on, man, it’s not like we’re ever going to agree on a name anyway.”

“Who says we have to agree?” Deran retorted, but shifted gears anyway. “You know, the money’s not going to last forever with the cost of fuel for this thing; the solar panels only do so much.”

“We can stop for a few weeks or months at a time, work odd jobs to pay our way,” Adrian suggested. “Unless that’s your subtle way of telling me you want to pull jobs like you did with your brothers…”

“No,” They had barely escaped lengthy prison sentences in the states, Deran wasn’t going to risk them winding up in a foreign prison for trying to pull off an international heist. “We just need to keep an eye on our funds and fuel so we don’t end up stranded somewhere.”

“I have a log of our fuel consumption,” Adrian pointed to a clipboard hanging from a tack on the wall. “I trust you to keep track of the money we’re spending.”

“I’m in charge of our budget?” If he could keep the bar out of bankruptcy for a year and a half, he could handle their combined finances. “We should probably figure out where we’re going then.”

“Probably, yeah,” Adrian agreed with a nod. “Traveling south with no real destination in mind yet has been nice, but we need to know where we’re headed to so we can plan out stops for fuel and food.”

“And meds,” Deran rubbed his injured. “Your mom set us up with a nice supply of pain killers, but those aren’t going to last forever either.”

“We should probably start doing some physical therapy, like the doctor told us to,” Adrian glanced down at his healing body. “And make sure to change the bandages regularly and keep it all clean. We’ll never hear the end of it if we end up back in the hospital with infections.”

“You’ll never hear the end of it,” Deran’s brothers would only call him an idiot and let it go. “You check in with your brother or sister so they don’t call the coast guard on us? What’re they up to?”

“Tommy and Pope haven’t killed each other yet, so that’s something,” It seemed they’d both lost the bet on how long it would take their short-tempered brothers to come to blows. “Mom was admitted into rehab this morning. And Jess and Carter are going on a date next week.”

“She’s going on a date with the kid’s father?” Shit, the two of them did things about as ass-backward as he and Adrian. “It’s about time. It’s not like they’ve been together since high school or anything.”

“Some people take longer than others to get a clue,” Adrian said pointedly. “Like you.”

“I got it together before they did,” As much as he wished he had done it sooner than he had, he couldn’t change the past. “I guess everyone’s getting their shit together.”

“We’re all trying anyway,” Adrian smiled softly. “Things feel better out here. I don’t know if it’s the sea air or what, but it’s easier to breathe and just relax here.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what everyone was so worried about,” Their families fears about them being on their own turned out to be completely unfounded. “How much trouble do they think we could get into in the middle of the ocean?”

“Well, I mean, we did like to pretend to be pirates when we were little.”

“Dude, we were, like, five then.”

“Pretty sure they still think we’re five.”

“They do like to treat us like kids,” Hazard of being the youngest, he supposed, it certainly couldn’t have anything to do with all the trouble they’d gotten into in the past. “Nothing we do is gonna change that.”

“We could still try to prove them wrong.”

“Let’s heal up to the point where we don’t flinch just trying to get out of bed and take a break from all the heavy shit for awhile,” They weren’t in any kind of shape to be making big life changes. “Then we can work on improving ourselves or what the fuck ever.”

“I think we’ve done a lot of improving over the last few years,” Adrian, for one, was content with their progress. “We just need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot, taking two steps forward and five steps back.”

“Easier said than done,” They were experts at self-sabotage, and that wasn’t an easy habit to break. “See, we’re gonna put in all this work to grow up, then we’re gonna go home and revert.”

“You know, when we go home, we don’t have to go home,” Adrian mentioned. “We can anchor off shore, go inland when we want to see our family.”

“We could go back to that but still have this,” They could maintain their solitude and independence, two things they could rarely find in Oceanside. “That could work, if and when we decide to go home.”

“If and when is a long way off.”

“Yeah, I know,” Deran was in no hurry to return to Oceanside. “We still haven’t decided where we’re going.”

“South,” Adrian nodded toward the compass on the panel beside the helm. “Other than that, I got nothing.”

“We have options,” It was a big world out there, a good portion of it accessible from the water. “If we still want to go somewhere familiar first, we could always go back to—“

“If you say ‘_go back to Belize’_, you are going to the back of the boat.”

“It’s called the stern.”

“Deran.”

“Fuck it. Let’s go to Costa Rica.”

**Author's Note:**

> Next: Detective Pearce confronts Deran. Ghost delivers bad news. The Codys decide whether a loose end needs to be tied. Tommy calls in reinforcements to help with a family problem. Jason gives Adrian his next assignment.


End file.
